The first traveller to win a place at the University of Cambridge will graduate on Saturday with a first-class honours degree in history.

Zoah Hedges-Stocks, 23, was born into a family of travelling showmen and spent every summer school term working on her mother’s food van, selling candy floss to fairgoers across East Anglia. She won a place at Murray Edwards College in 2009 and overcame a spell of illness that interrupted her studies.

“I still can’t quite believe I have got a first. It has been a lot of hours and a lot of essays,” she said. “I’ve never experienced any snobbery about my background and everyone has been really welcoming.”

Her mother, Bernice, and her grandparents will be at the graduation ceremony.

“I am so proud of Zoah and just couldn’t take it in when she said she had a First,” her mother said. “No one else in our community has ever been to university and I think she has done amazingly well.”

Ms Hedges-Stocks has been offered a place on a journalism training course.