IT is not every day that someone gets singled out as a source of inspiration by a prime minister, and many people were touched when the country’s leader spoke glowingly about the success of 17-year-old Kordell Clarke, despite early setbacks.

Clarke, a lower sixth form student at Alpha Academy in Kingston and a resident of the tough inner-city community of Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston, was recently hailed by Prime Minister Bruce Golding for overcoming great odds to triumph academically.

A painful spine shaped like an “S” which made her the subject of mean jokes and name-calling, and the added distraction of living in a community where a street dance is kept outside her door every night, did not prevent this youngster from copping 12 CXC subjects with seven distinctions and five twos.

“It affected me, but I didn’t allow it to control me,” the teen, who seems always to be smiling, told the Observer last week, a few days after Golding spoke about her in Parliament.

“People noticed because I was slanted; you know they imitate the way you walk and call you names but I wasn’t the person to be offended. I’m a girl like this – if you make fun of me I will laugh with you,” she said.

Clarke said while the odd slant to her body became really apparent when she started Alpha in 2003 it was ignored “because it didn’t seem dangerous”.

It was in her second year after a bad bout of sinusitis prompted a visit to the doctor that her eyes were opened to what was happening with her body. Even to that point the teen said she kept her wits about her, but her mother Pauline Livingston worried and her blood pressure shot through the roof.

“I still didn’t see the seriousness of it even when diagnosed. I got scared when the doctor said it was a risky process and said I could end up crippled… and also when I saw other teenagers on the ward who had it. They were in pain,” Clarke recalled.

While she does not remember how much it cost to give her a chance at a normal life, Clarke is mindful of the persons who made it possible, especially Golding who at the time was re-entering politics as Member of Parliament for her West Kingston community.

“My mother got a token from her workplace and she also had money from a partner (informal banking arrangement) that she was in. The expenses really came with getting the iron, the pins and the brace. I am a Scotiabank Scholar so they helped me with the back brace. The expense was not so much because of Mr Golding,” she told the Observer.

Surgery was arranged towards the end of her third year but kept being postponed, and it was not until around July of 2007 that the procedure was done which cut into her preparation for the four CXC subjects she was to sit in fourth form. Laid up at home, she ended up “missing many of those sessions”.

When she returned towards November of that year it was with a back brace in tow. Wearing it to school in the early days after surgery she said was “social suicide” but for a handful of friends who kept encouraging her and even helped bear the burden of her bag and books.

From then, the focus was how to combat the nightly street dances and make up for lost time.

“I had to wait till 2:00 or 3:00 am when the tempo had changed and I learnt to soak in the information during the time spent in class and rely on that and use my common sense to push through my exams,” Clarke said.

Now armed with a distinction in mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, English Language, history, English literature and passes in geography, French, principles of business and information technology, Clarke has her sights set on a degree in actuarial science which she hopes to pursue at the University of the West Indies in 2010.

“I don’t like things that are popular. I don’t like to go with the crowd. I think Actuarial Science will give me a challenge,” she said.

And while she has reason to be bitter, having also lost her father at age 10 to cancer and a brother to cancer as well, Clarke says she gets along with everyone.

“I try to make everyone around me feel special. I love to make persons laugh. I love to laugh. I’m very helpful and I love to see everyone succeed,” said the teen, who is games co-ordinator for the Sixth Form Association, a Key Club Member, a netball enthusiast, in addition to a range of other things.

The thought that keeps her going?

“The only way to achieve the possible is to reach beyond the impossible.”

Best friends Yannique Ewers and Anna-K Petersgill say Clarke is a “jovial person”.

“We have all been friends of Kordell since first form. She is very friendly. We are all best friends,” Petersgill told the Observer.

Speaking of Clarke, Golding – who had all but forgotten his good deed ’till the teen was brought to visit him several months ago – said her perseverance and triumph was an example of what renews (his) faith in the people of this country.

“My faith in the people of Jamaica has never wavered. And every now and again most unexpectedly something happens that renews my faith in the potential we have as a people,” the prime minister said.