AIDAN PRAVEEN SOOKRAM was born 21 weeks premature, spending the first 42 days of his life within the walls of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) fighting to stay alive while the complications of his early birth robbed him of his vision.

Aidan, now 12, was diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), living with little to no vision in one eye, and only peripheral vision in the other.

Last week, despite the mountain of odds stacked against him, Aidan successfully passed this year's Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination. Come September, the Marabella boy will enter the classrooms of the Marabella North Secondary School, eager to learn and with hopes to one day be a teacher, or a chef. It is an achievement his parents say have left them filled with pride and hope for his future.