So it has been a full week since the finals of Miss England 2015, where Natasha Hemmings, Miss Cheshire, was chosen as our country’s representative heading to Miss World in December. My Miss England journey was great – it was fun, eventful; with highs and lows (way more highs) and it is great to reflect on the final now after a week.

My journey really started in March after I was crowned Miss Hampshire, but my physical trip up to the finals at the Ricoh Arena, in Coventry, began late Wednesday afternoon on a packed and hot National Express from Victoria station in London. Just as I was boarding Miss Surrey Jade McQueen hollered my name and came running up to me in the queue – by coincidence we had booked the same coach. We then spent the next three hours discussing the competition, and I am pretty sure the entire coach heard our conversations about our favourite Miss World’s and Miss England’s.

Once we reached Coventry we headed our separate ways as Jade was staying at the Ricoh Arena while I was booked into the Holiday Inn. I spent the evening relaxing getting my hair and tan sorted for the next few days, and then an early night to bed.

The next morning I wolfed down a full English breakfast, because I knew I would need some serious energy for the day ahead, and headed off the Ricoh. I literally stepped out of my taxi and was hugged and greeted by Miss Surbiton Charlotte Rudham, who I’ve known for three years so I was super happy to see her and get to spend the finals together.

We headed in to register where we handed in our auction gifts for The Memusi Foundation, registered our total charity donations and handed our bags in. I donated three sets of handmade pearl and semi-precious stone drop earrings by Inspiration by Cara, who had also created my pearl three piece set which I also wore throughout the finals.

At this point I kept bumping into familiar faces and old friends, as well as new, and there was much hugging and chitter chatter as we were all super excited by this point.

Meeting Kat Simpson was a real honour, and she prepped us all for our recorded interviews. Miss England doesn’t have face to face interviews with the judges during the finals – instead each contestant records a short intro monologue talking about themselves. Despite having done a lot of presenting and TV work, I still got a little nervous recording but luckily the video team were friendly and I nailed it in one take phew!

Next up was a general knowledge quiz held by Kirsty, Karina and Kerry Heslewoods, who are basically royalty in Miss England terms. Last year’s quiz was super hard so I had spent a little while revising for the test. We were given eight minutes and twenty questions to answer. The first few I thought were easy and got a little cocky, until I spied the maths and science questions towards the latter of the paper. Nobody came out too confident if I am honest!

I was one of the lucky 22 shortlisted for the Billion Dollar Smile round, so I was given a lovely white vest and got to strut my stuff in front of the Billion Dollar Smile to compete for the Brightest Smile award. I loved this round as it was a great practice on the catwalk, and I tend to always have a smile on my face. Unfortunately I was not selected for the top 5 of this round, but I took it on the chin. After all, there’s only going to be one winner out of 52, so we all need to get used to this!

Okay so next up was the boot camp arranged by Xtreme Boot Camps. I think we were all scared, and felt a little sick. Luckily it wasn’t too hot as we legged it around the Ricoh car park, but I was worried about falling over and scraping my knees up. I’m glad my group got Matt as the instructor.  We had the gruelling task of running and jump squatting between different line lengths, and then a team task involving lifting weights, sprinting, jumping in and out of tyres and star jumps. I’m not the fittest girl, but I am determined. I did keep jogging on the spot throughout the entire workout and while I wasn’t the fastest, speaking to Matt after, he said he awarded me a point because I worked the hardest anyway! Awesome! The boot camp ended with a plank off, with Holly Desai Miss Leicestershire winning – this was great as it was her birthday!

After a healthy and well-earned lunch the top six who had scored full points in the Brainy Beauty round were invited to round two, and I was one of them! Now that I didn’t expect, and neither did I expect the next round to be so hard. I thought I had maybe 2/3 right out of the 5 questions, so I lost all hope I would win this round after that! How little did I know!

We then joined rehearsals for the eco-wear show later that evening and practised our posing and walking. I spent a lot of my time on the catwalk with Miss Manchester Jodi, Miss Bolton & Bury Laura, Miss Oxfordshire Layla, Miss Cheshire Natasha, Miss Rugby Natalie and my roomie Miss Cumbria Jordan. We were an awesome team I must say and really concentrated to learn the choreography perfectly.

After our Subways which Subway Coventry provided for us, we got ready doing our hair and makeup and struggled to get into our amazing eco-wear. Miss Rickmansworth Charlotte laced me into my milk-bottle plastic bodice and boy did I regret a fluffy winter hat under those stage lights. I couldn’t stop admiring all the amazing creations and I could not predict who would win eco-wear because they were all so incredible.

We then strutted our James Bond themed eco-wear onto stage and had a ball! Every contestant had something unique, whether it be the material, the theme, the Bond girl they were emulating… it was fantastic. I got very swishy with the lace curtains and had to watch out for my counterpart on stage as her skirt was made of a spiky umbrella! The eco round was brilliant and it is great for the judges to see what we wear and create as it shows so much of our personality.

My favourite eco-wear speech has to go to my good friend Miss Sussex Lucy for saying she hoped the judges thought she was a bit of a bombshell, and that she'd "go out with a bang." Her hat and dress were in the style of a massive explosion so often seen in the James Bond films! 

After our time on stage we got to watch the final of Mr England from the back of the room. The contestants this year were of high calibre, but when it came to the on-stage question, Mr Liverpool Chris Brammell absolutely blew me away with his answer and I had a feeling he’d won it – and he did. His girlfriend was sobbing at the front of the stage and some crazy horns and trumpets were going off – it was a crazy celebration and boy did he have some fans!

We finally headed back to the hotel after a seriously long day, and while we were meant to be sleeping, Jordan and I stayed up far too late necking hot chocolate and discussing all things Miss England. Despite our seven year age gap, we had tons in common and I cannot believe how a 17-year-old can be so mature! Plus she looks gorge without any make-up! My skin did not look like that seven years ago!

Day Two

Day two and the final day of Miss England commenced with breakfast with Jordan, as well as Miss Liverpool Jennifer who was still on a high because of Mr Liverpool winning and Miss Northamptonshire Giorgia. It seems like such a surreal world when you have breakfast with some of the nicest and most beautiful women in the country!

The last day whizzed by full of serious rehearsals, including learning to walk slowly in evening wear while not actually wearing it just yet. We discovered we were wearing masks in the opening LBD round which I loved as the first time I had ever competed nationally I wore a red and white mask (in 2011). Practising to the music of James Bond was great fun and despite sore feet the atmosphere and excitement was beginning to build.

Just before Lisa and Karina who were choreographing let us head off to get ready, my organiser Paula Langley, who also runs the film company Abbeyfield Films, got us all to mime and dance to Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off video to help with nerves and just to have a damn good time! You can view the hilarious results here: (warning there is a make-up less me in it!)

Okay so then things got serious. We all disappeared off to have our hair and makeup done by Sexy Hair and Le Maq Pro. My hairstylist Sarah was great fun and did my hair exactly how Rolene Strauss had hers at Miss World 2014. Vicky my make-up artist was absolutely hilarious and also had a cameo role in the video above.

After a few changing room selfies we were whisked upstairs for what was the beginning of the end. I wore a tight low v-neck black dress that had a skater skirt so I could strut more. After the dance act opened the show we filed out looking like deadly lady assassins from James Bond with our red masks, and then revealed our faces at the end.

It was over so quickly and before we could blink we were straight into our evening gowns and about to go on stage for what would be for many, the last time. Our music was so James Bond, and I really strutted as if I was a Bond girl. My dress from Mon Cheri Europe made me feel a million dollars and I enjoyed every minute.

The agonising wait for the final top 15 was literally excruciating. While we knew a handful of winners, such as Popularity, Charity, Beach Beauty and Sportswoman, the majority of awards were still to be revealed. I knew I was in the shortlist for a lot of the rest so this was a tense wait. I spent a long time mulling over the top 15 and questions with Miss Cheltenham Sophie who is an absolutely amazing young woman.

After they announced Miss Nottingham Rebecca as the eco-wear winner I started to get a little worried, and stood up to hold hands with Charlotte and Cheraleigh; Rickmansworth and Norwich respectively.  Right in front of me was Miss Hippodrome Isabelle, who nearly lost her voice when she found out she’d won the Top Model round. She legged it onto stage and as I turned to Charlotte and Cheraleigh I said “Okay one of us has to be in it.” 

They then announced the winner of Brainy Beauty….and it was my title….my name they called out! I didn’t even really look up as I walked from backstage to tons of the girls screaming. I walked onto stage so overwhelmed to see Kerry beaming at me and as she sashed me and gave me the biggest trophy in the entire planet I could see my family going nuts in the crowd – I believe Paula lost her voice from the screaming!

A quick catwalk and pose later (thank god Kerry came with me and guided me) and I was on stage with the final top 15, and not only had I made it, but so had Sophie as Miss Publicity, and both Charlotte and Cheraleigh were judges choices! It was so great to be up there with new and old friends, and to see the talented and beautiful Stephanie Miss South Yorkshire win the Talent award for the second year running!

I hadn’t really thought about the next part, but we were soon utterly naked ramming ourselves into these beautiful Sri Lankan couture swimwear and skirts, and my goodness they were stunning. Every girl had a different one on and they were gorgeous! Natasha quickly sorted out my flyaway hair and we were back in the queue to head out in our new outfits.

Again it was quick – a catwalk here, a pose there, but I just wasn’t what the judges were looking for that night. I would have liked to have placed higher than 15^th, but I just wasn’t what the judges were looking for that night. The cut from 15-5 is a tough and brutal one as the scores are wiped and you are judged solely on the next one round despite everything else you’ve put into the competition; and although I came last I was glad to be part of the top 15. 

In third place was Sophie, followed by Rebecca, with Natasha taking the crown. She had no idea she would win and that humble attitude and refreshing loveliness I think is a big reason why she won, alongside the fact she is beautiful and very charitable.

I greeted my family and we had a blast partying into the early hours of the morning dancing with contestants and crew. My feet have never hurt so much as they did then but I was on a huge life high and the atmosphere was wonderful.

The next morning we said our goodbyes, I ate enough junk food to feed a small army and myself and my boyfriend headed back to our home in London. Once home, with my new ginormous trophy placed on my shelf of crowns and sashes, I realised what I had achieved and what I had done for not just myself, but for all the girls; the 22,000 that had entered.

The scores will never reflect what an awesome person I have become, and I feel I have grown so much and I am so proud of myself. While the competition has never defined me or my life, it has led me on some incredible paths and given me opportunities I never would have had.

Lots of love xxx