Rachel Christie is Miss England 2009

Saturday, 25 July 2009

Aspiring heptathlete, Rachel Christie has battled her way through the heats to make it through to the 2 days event to claim victory by being crowned as the new Miss England at the London Hilton Metropole on the 20th of July.

Pictured from the far left is 2nd runner up was Miss Leeds, Viki Bailey. Rachel Christie who was crowned Miss England on the night. Finally we have on the far right is 1st Runner Up Miss Everymodel, Kat Hodge!

You can read more about the event here:
http://www.missengland.info/latest-news/6-latest-news/71-rachel-christie-is-miss-england-2009

Miss Cheltenham Crowned!

Friday, 12 June 2009

Victoria Ilina has been officially crowned Miss Cheltenham 2009 at a press call in the Queens Hotel in Cheltenham today. The Lord Mayor of Chelteham alongside the reining Miss England Laura Coleman, presented Victoria with her new crown and sash.

Victoria Ilina with the Lord Mayor of Cheltenham and Laura Coleman.

Victoria Ilina and Laura Coleman.

Victoria Ilina and The Lord Mayor.

Miss Cheltenham 2009.

A big thank you to the Lord Mayor of Cheltenham and Laura Coleman for attending today's presentation.

We wish Victoria every success in her future and are very excited at the role she will play within the community as Miss Cheltenham. Victoria is profoundly deaf after suffering from meningitis as a baby. She is an extremely determined character and is a great role model to the deaf community, proving that anything can be achieved with the right outlook on life. It must be incredibly difficult to be deaf in any community and Victoria is an inspiration.

Victoria's reaction: "It was an honour to receive my crown from The Lord Mayor and Laura Coleman, who is a Business & Marketing graduate with an honours degree! Laura proves you can mix beauty and brains despite the comments in today's Echo. I want to make use of the title to help raise awareness of the everyday difficulties faced by people with a disability like mine."

We would also like to take this opportunity to explain the reasons why Alison Chenery was recently stripped of her title.

Firstly, according to the award website, Alison would have known about the Award she won back in April when the winners were informed. At the Miss Cheltenham final, during her interview, the judges were not informed about the award or when it was to be presented (the same day as the Miss England semi-finals) - no mention was made and we feel that vital information was withheld.

Secondly, no communication was made to either the Miss Cheltenham organisers or the Miss England office regarding Alison not being able to attend the Miss England semi-final. There was ample time and plenty of ways she could have made someone aware of her change of plans, and we feel something as important as the Miss England semi-finals meant solid communication was needed. The responsibility lies in the hands of the contestants regarding their involvement in the competition. The Miss England office was genuinely worried when Alison didn't show up and tried to contact her to no avail.

Obviously we understand contestants careers are highly important to them, and nobody denies that collecting an award as prestigious as the one Alison won is any less important than attending the Miss England semi-finals. But without responsibly communicating this information prior to being judged, and prior to the semi-finals event, we had no alternative but to take the title away from Alison.

Alison obviously has a great career ahead of her and we wish her all the best for the future.