I've lurked on these forums for years, during the good times and the very stressful times. I wanted to share my experience so that others know that through the hard times you can and will succeed.

So, I started my PhD in 2011 and all was going along fine until year 3 and then stalled. Writer's block, procrastination, financial pressures. It all seemed to come at once and I did nothing for about a year. Then my dad was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and given just months to live. It was a horrible time and the last thing I could think about was writing up. After he passed away it took another six months to even look at my thesis again and I seriously thought about giving up.

But I decided to carry on and finally submitted in June 2016. I was so happy and felt free, so was distraught when I received major corrections (six months) after my October viva. It took three months to get the list of corrections (more stress from the constant chasing/harassing of registry). The corrections were very fair though which was easier to accept. I felt so tired and fed up but managed to hand them in late April this year.

Since then I have been refreshing my email every few minutes (I'm not even exaggerating), hoping for good news but preparing for bad. I haven't been sleeping very well, drinking a little too much, worried about the possible negative outcomes. Anyhow, imagine my surprise when I was busily deleting junk emails on the train to London this morning when the email popped up. Informal email read, 'All done – you should get the go ahead from Registry to graduate in the next couple of days. Congratulations!' The train was packed and I was in shock. I can't believe it. No further corrections, I'm free!!!

I hope this helps anyone who's PhD journey isn't easy. Keep going, you'll get there in the end :)