A woman from Borehamwood has made it through to the finals of Miss Hertfordshire.

Leonie Norton, 23, of Stratfield Road, entered the competition and has managed to beat other competitors from across the county.

Miss Hertfordshire is a county-wide competition where hundreds of women enter and only one can be crowned ‘Miss Hertfordshire 2016’.

Miss Norton said: “I was really nervous when I got through to the finals. I got a phone call and I kept jumping around the room.

“I couldn’t stop smiling. I love doing charity work and raising money for a good cause.

“My old manager told me that I should enter this competition because I love fundraising.

“Even if I didn’t through to the finals I would have still done some sort of fundraising anyway.

“I have always been interested in doing something like this and I was going to enter competitions when I was younger but they are more like the USA ones.

“I entered last year but I couldn’t go to any of the events because I was on holiday so I reapplied this year.”

To enter into Miss Hertfordshire, Miss Norton had to fill out a form online and the organisers go through the entries and decide who should move to the next round.

When Miss Norton was invited to the semi-finals she had to have her photograph taken and she met with the other girls.

She said: “Everyone is really nice and not bitchy at all.

“I was quite scared when I got my picture taken but everyone was so nice it was great.”

For the competition, the girls have to raise money for Beauty with a Purpose, a charity that helps thousands of children across the world to benefit a vulnerable society.

Despite having to raise money for Beauty with a Purpose, Miss Norton is also hoping to collect donations for Cancer Research UK.

“I have lost a few people from cancer and I wanted to do a fundraising event for them anyway,” she said.

“I was able to do this because of the competition.”

The finals will be held in Stevenage on April 10.