Has taking it from the top counted me out of Cambridge?

Sorry for the long question (and the life story), but any advice would be massively appreciated.

Hi,

(I'd like to apologise first off if this is completely the wrong place- I'm new here and a little baffled at how it all works, so if someone has to move this, I'm very sorry.)

So, I was unwell while taking my GCSEs the year before last, but they went much better than expected. However when I hit college last year (having chosen to do three sciences and French in order to do Medicine) things went really badly. I had a pretty awful year, culminating in me realising that I'd pushed myself down the medicine route, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do. I still took all my exams (including General Studies (my best subject- *sigh*) and Creative Writing) but didn't do very well in any of them besides GS.
I missed writing so much last year, and realise now that's the path I really want to go down, so I'm self studying English Combined, Philosophy and Classics (and one more yet to be decided, for the AS grade) over the next two years (online course, but standard AQA/ EDEXCEL qualifications).

What I'm wondering is, considering the sad-face results I got in my ASs last year (while I was unwell and barely in college)- two Ds, two Cs and a B (plus A in Gen Studies), even though I have abandoned all of them, am I now scuppered if I want to apply for Cambridge? I would love to study English there once I've done my A-Levels, and I hope that I'll be able to get top grades in all of them going forward (don't we all?), but I don't know whether my mess-ups in non- English subjects are going to completely destroy my chances? Will they just look at the grade sheet and bin it? Or will the fact I've sat them in a previous exam series mean it doesn't matter, or I don't have to declare them?


Sorry for the long question (and the life story), but any advice would be massively appreciated.

You have to declare everything and any extenuating circumstances have to be confirmed by the school or a doctor.

If you apply once you have your A2 results then you will have a chance, if those results are good. Without paper evidence at GCSE or A2 I think a pre-qualification application has little chance of success.