GEORGIA Horsley, 20 of Malton North Yorkshire, won the prestigious title of Miss England on Saturday 30 June at a glittering event held at The Athena in Leicester and will now take part in the 57th Miss World pageant in Sanya, China later this year.

Georgia who was Miss York in 2005 has not had a life of plain sailing though; she is totally deaf in her right ear as a result of an ear infection when she was two and a half.

Parents, Jean and Gareth, noticed very suddenly Georgia’s temperature rise and after being rushed to hospital with suspected meningitis was diagnosed with a fever fit.

Despite this, they were unaware that this had left Georgia deaf in one ear until hearing tests carried out at school when she was nearly five detected the problem.

There was nothing that could be done to improve her hearing and indeed Georgia never wanted anyone to know.  Mum, Jean, says” it was always a problem at parent’s evenings that we would be told she could pay more attention etc. but we knew she wanted to adapt to the problem and not be seen as a someone wanting sympathy”

When the final seven were announced on Saturday, Georgia didn’t hear her number so was a little late on stage!

She is currently the face and voice of The Press, York’s local newspaper, who filmed Georgia to promote the city recently named the U.K’s most popular visitor destination via their DVD and website.

During her year as Miss England Georgia is keen to help the deaf association as much as possible (she intends to learn how to sign) and cancer charities; both of which are very close to her and the family that she adores.

She and Sister Lauren, a recently graduated medical student from Cambridge University, live the fear of breast cancer.  Their grandmother died of the disease and mum, Jean, suffered from breast cancer ten years ago.  But it’s not just on the maternal side of the family; paternally, Georgia’s auntie was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and underwent a mastectomy.

Despite having had her own breast cancer scare just weeks before her appearance in Miss England 2005 Georgia remains positive and can’t wait to use her experience and knowledge of these drawbacks to help others.

Before winning the title of Miss England her aim was to pursue a career as a media make-up artist having won a place at Manchester University. Recognised as one of the finest courses in the country she was also preparing to do some make-up on the set of Coronation Street. Now she is totally focused on preparing for Miss World and using the confidence she has worked so hard at developing to good use during her year as Miss England.

A final quote from Georgia, “this is the most amazing experience of my life so far and I can at last talk about my deafness freely and just hope I can help other people who may have similar disabilities.  I’d just say; if you want something enough you can overcome anything.”