A Catford student living in Catford once on her "last legs" while suffering from malaria has been bowled over by public support to put herself through drama school.

Tiwalade Ibirogba Olulode, 24, has studied drama since she was at school in Northampton. Since then, she has pursued her performing arts dreams in the USA, Nigeria and London.

After studying in New York, she travelled to Lagos, Nigeria for a short trip to visit family. This short trip turned into a year-long excursion when a theatre in the city expressed an interest in a play she was writing.

Sadly, she only reached the rehearsal stage of the play before she became seriously ill.

Tiwalade told News Shopper: “I was starting to feel tired and getting headaches. I had already had malaria twice so I thought I couldn’t have it again. I just put it down to overworking. But it was progressively getting worse.

“I thought if I could just push for one more week then everything would be ok. But one morning I woke up and I couldn’t get out of bed.

“I physically couldn’t even lift an arm. I called out for my dad. I was in tears.”

After being rushed to hospital and put on a drip, doctors recommended Tiwalade was sent back to the UK for treatment and she moved to Northampton General Hospital.

“The doctor said if I had left it another three to five days before coming to the hospital, I would have died,” she said.

The inspiring actress had not only picked up malaria, but doctors concluded she was also suffering from glandular fever. She took several months to recover.

“I really was on my last legs,” she said.

While resting at her mother’s house in Northampton, Tiwalade was inspired to apply for the National Youth Theatre after seeing a video of alumnus Daniel Craig speaking about his experience online.

“If Daniel Craig is in a video, I’m going to watch it,” Tiwalade joked.

After joining the NYT, she auditioned for its REP programme. Out of more than 1,000 students who applied, she was one of the 16 people chosen for the nine-month programme.

However, the full-time studying and training leaves little time for Tiwalade to work, so she needs some help with living costs while on the course.

About a fortnight ago, she started a fundraiser asking for donations from people to put her through the programme for nine months.

In a short time, she has managed to raise more than £1,000 of her £6,104.70 target for nine months' worth of travel, rent and food.

“I was so shocked. I started this up just over two weeks ago. It makes me so happy there are so many people out there that really believe in me. This could have gone one of two ways,” Tiwalade said.

As well as the "overwhelming" support from the public, she paid tribute to two teachers who had helped her chase her dreams: Mr Parker in Northampton and Zenon Kruszelnicki in New York.

As part of the programme, Tiwalade will take part in three plays on the West End: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frankenstein and Great Expectations.

While she is working as a brand ambassador as much as possible in her spare time, she is hoping community kindness will help her fund her dream – although she admits she was apprehensive to fundraise at first.

“Basically I’m asking people for money - but I was overwhelmed with the lovely comments from people.”