When Sandra O'Neill's husband died suddenly, leaving her with two young children and a pub to run, she knew it was going to be tough.

Her worst nightmares could not have prepared her for the fight which would follow.

Battles with executors to try to sort out her husband's will still haunt.

Alone, with no job prospects and mounting debts, her legal wrangles brought the stark realisation that she was going to have to take the law into her own hands - literally.

Trawling libraries and weighty publications for information, she decided to study law.

Three years and a newly clinched degree under her belt, Sandra says it was the best decision she had ever made.

She is not destined for the legal profession, explaining the "conveyor belt system which produces solicitors" is barred to her on the grounds of expense.

"Being a 44-year-old single mother with insufficient funds has its limitations.

I couldn't afford a legal practice course or, at my age, get a training contract.

I would have to be 22 or 23 to go down that avenue."

Instead, Sandra says she is considering probation work - and a masters law degree.

She did manage to sort out her late husband's estate, eventually, but still resents the time and trauma involved.

Sandra owned Middleton Fell Inn, near Sedbergh, with her husband John, until his sudden death five years ago.

It hadn't exactly been an easy life before her tragic bereavement, running a pub and young family.

But without warning her life was turned upside down.

"We suddenly found ourselves in a terrible mess.

The children were distraught - Dan was 13, Kath ten, at the time.

Financially it was awful.

Everything was in my husband's name.

I couldn't touch anything.

Bills were piling up and the difficulties in sorting out the will started.

"I struggled on for six months at the pub before I had to let it go.

Legally, everything seemed to be so difficult.

I couldn't get anywhere, so I started looking at books to search out information for myself.

I couldn't even switch a computer on at that stage.

"I had to do something.

I didn't even have enough money for a headstone.

"I'd been a bank clerk before I had the children.

I began to think if I did a law degree, I would make a much better job of being a solicitor than the ones I had been dealing with."

Sandra became a regular library visitor, reading whatever she could on wills and probate.

"Eventually I found a lady solicitor who sorted everything out.

At last, I had found someone sympathetic.

Up until then it seemed as if the whole profession was unreal.

"I knew by then that I wanted to study law.

I was going to have to get a job, but first I had to get this out of my system.

"I was filled with self doubt.

A friend even took me by the hand to Lancaster University and said 'you can do it'."

An access course at Kendal College got the ball rolling.

Then, maintenance grant and student loan clinched, Sandra took herself off to Uni, travelling to Lancaster every day from her Middleton-in-Lonsdale home.

"It was totally nerve wracking.

Not many mature students do law, and by 22 you are already a mature student.

I was 41.

"The students were superb.

They didn't treat me any differently.

I was one of them.

"People say study gets harder as you get older.

I think the main problem is there are so many distractions.

You have to make space for learning.

I found it very hard at first.

I hadn't written a structured essay for 25 years."

By her third year, son Daniel was sitting his A-levels and daughter Kath in her first GCSE year.

The race for the home computer was on.

Dan had already gained 11 GCSEs, including two A-stars and five As.

There is big mutual support in this household and no rivalry.

Sandra learned last week that she had gained a 2.1 law degree.

She regrets not having enough money to become a solicitor.

Law school, she says, would cost £6,000 and is out of the question.

"I'd like to campaign for women stuck in similar positions to me and get the message across that going to university is one of the best things that could happen in life.

Learning has become a drug for me."

"It opened up a whole new world and gave me confidence that I never knew I had."