Elleanor Ryan, a beauty pageant winner who has recently been crowned Miss Durham will be representing Teeside in the Miss England finals this summer.
17 year old Elleanor from Middlesbrough beat 18 other hopefuls at Sedgefield Racecourse.
She said: “I have always wanted to do this since I have been little and I have never been given the chance so it was really overwhelming.”
Elleanor is an apprentice beauty therapist and will take part in the national finals this June. She hopes that she will be able to use her new position to highlight the rare condition Langerhans’ Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) that her brother Andrew suffers from.
It only affects 50 children in the U.K. every year and causes the immune system to attack healthy organs of the body.
Elleanor says that Nunthorpe School pupil Andrew is very lid back – despite being on treatment for life.
“He is so mature. He is not bothered. He gets on with life,” she said.
Elleanor’s first taste of modeling was a photo shoot when she was 5 years old and she has continued to do model agency work from the age of 13.
She has also taken part in the Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice charity fashion show and participated in a charity fundraiser at Redcar Rugby Club that was based on ITV dating show Take Me Out. The event aimed to raise money for Leukaemia Research.
One of Elleanor’s ambitions is to be in a shampoo advert: “When I was little I used to walk up and down trying to do it like they do on hair adverts.
“I have never really done proper catwalks. When I was little I was a little poser.”
Elleanor – who said she doesn’t agree with pressure on young women to be slim –
For more information about Langerhans’ Cell Histiocytosis visit www.hrtrust.org.
Amazing Opportunity!