Pride in a daughter's academic achievement and gratitude for a parent's sacrifice may have been felt in many homes across Britain yesterday, but nowhere will the emotions have been felt as strongly as in the Griffiths household.

When she was only two days old, Alex Griffiths was snatched from her mother's hospital bedside, triggering a huge police investigation and a search that gripped the nation and the world in January 1990.

She was found three weeks later and returned to her family. Her mother, Dawn Griffiths, a nanny from Middlesbrough, was paid £110,000 for the story, but rather than spend it, she put all the money into a fund to give her daughter the education that she never had.

The sacrifice - which allowed Alex to attend a private boarding school with fees of more than £6,000 a term - paid off. Alex passed three A levels and two AS levels, with one A and four Bs, giving her the chance of a place at the University of Manchester to study maths.

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Mrs Griffiths suffered a nervous breakdown after Alex was abducted, and separated from Alex's father. She also had problems bonding with her baby daughter. She said yesterday that Alex's success meant everything to her and she hoped that it would grant Alex a better quality of life.

“I hardly even went to school and I left with very few qualifications,” she said. “Alex has worked very hard. She spent most nights on the computer doing her homework.

“She is a very determined person. She knows what she wants and she will go to any lengths to get it. I'm really proud of her.”

Alex, who has 12 GCSEs, said that she found it strange, even now, to reflect on the unexpected turn that her life had taken. She paid tribute to her mother, and the teachers at Polam Hall, in Darlington, Co Durham, which caters for pupils aged 3 to 18, and said that she planned to celebrate in style.

“I owe so much to my mum and the school,” Alex, 18, said. “I'm delighted. It's fantastic. I'm planning a big party with my friends. This means everything to me.”

Describing how she became fascinated with maths while at Polam Hall, she said: “I love maths. I just enjoy working with numbers, where I know there is a definite answer.

“The school has been excellent. The teachers have worked really hard and given me lots of extra lessons and helped me with my revision. If I had gone to a normal mainstream school, I probably would have done all right, but I wouldn't have got such good results. It's strange to think that I probably wouldn't have done as well as I did if I hadn't been kidnapped when I was a baby.”

Alex was kidnapped from St Thomas' Hospital in South London after a woman who was posing as a social worker told her mother that she needed to weigh the baby. When the woman - later revealed to be a nurse called Janet Griffiths, who was not related - failed to return, Dawn Griffiths raised the alarm. She and another patient described the woman so accurately that the photofit produced by police quickly narrowed the search.

Officers found the baby unharmed three weeks later, in a cottage in the Cotswolds, after a neighbour saw the drawing in the newspapers. The neighbour said that she became suspicious of Janet Griffiths, a newcomer to the village, after the nurse attempted to pass Alex off as her own child, in what was a vain attempt to persuade her married lover to leave his wife.

Janet Griffiths, who was 33, was sent to a psychiatric hospital for seven months. She died of cancer four years after her release.

Alex achieved an A in maths, a B in further maths and a B in drama. She gained a B in business and a B in general studies at AS level.

Marie Green, the headmistress of Polam Hall, said: “Alex has been a delight for us to have in our school community. It's nice that she benefited from every opportunity she has been given. We are really pleased for her.”

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