Surbiton skier Darcie Mead knows the meaning of determination in her never-ending pursuit of perfection on the slopes.

The 16-year-old Surbiton High School pupil got off her sickbed to become the youngest ever winner of the Lillywhite Trophy as the overall British female champion at the Delancey British Alpine Championships.

Things were even worse last August, when Mead was still training on the Austrian slopes despite suffering from a liver infection, glandular fever and sinusitis.

The triple whammy forced her out of the sport she loves for three months while she recuperated, but she still had her school work to do.

Now that she is back on the slopes, Mead has to play a fine balancing act between academic studies and alpine success.

“I’m studying photography, PE and psychology. It’s challenging. People who ski as a career do it full-time, and most of them drop out of school at 16,” she said.

“All I want to do is ski but if I get sick of racing I could look into coaching or doing sports psychology at Loughborough.

“But I love the freedom you have when you’re out there skiing, everything around you doesn’t matter. Being in the mountains makes me happy and probably always will.”

It was in the mountains of Meribel in France that Mead won her latest haul of medals, 13 in all, and it is testimony to her powers of recovery after suffering from a cold.

“I was feeling ill in August but carried on training. Then, when I went to Austria in October, I wasn’t skiing well and felt poorly,” she said.

“It turned out I had a liver infection, glandular fever and sinusitis. It gave me chronic fatigue and I couldn’t get out of bed without feeling tired.

“After all that, and having a cold going into Meribel, I wasn’t looking to win. I just wanted to have fun, so I didn’t expect it at all. It was amazing.”

After competing in eight races, including a first in the junior ladies’ downhill, Mead accumulated 345 points to take the overall female prize – she was only 16 points short of winning the top prize, that went to Scotland’s Dougie Crawford.

Mead said: “I definitely want to do the Olympics. My goal is to ski in Pyeong Chang in South Korea in 2018.”