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Kate was already doing her bit for the environment when she came across the Miss Earth 2008 competition on a website... "I entered not thinking that I would get through and was quite shocked when I received an e-mail stating I had been picked to go through to the semi finals. I was even more shocked when I got through to the grand final!

"I don't think I would have entered a normal beauty pageant as I'm not very 'girly' but because this one focused on the environment and I had wanted to enter a pageant as a young girl I thought I'd give it a go.

How was an eco-friendly pageant different? "I expected everyone to be really stuck up and out for themselves but everyone was so nice and I have made a lot of new friends. Some of the girls had been in other pageants like ‘Miss England’ and said that this pageant does have a different atmosphere and if I had entered any of the others I may have found people to be very competitive.

"At the pageant they showed a video to the audience about environmental issues and how we are damaging our planet, we all did a speech talking about our beliefs or what we had campaigned for. I talked about how we need to teach our children as they are the future and also the campaigns I have been involved with at work and home."

Kate's hard work paid off when she was crowned Miss Earth North West 2008, with an environmentally friendly prize of course! "I was awarded a Littlearth Eco-fashion handbag which has hand embellished Swarovski crystals, which is unique. As part of the prize for making it through to the grand finals a tree was planted on my behalf in the UK by The Big Tree Project, Scotland."

So how did the competition encourage her to continue her commitment to preserving and protecting the environment for future generations? "I think doing this has made me a lot more eco-friendly and although I already used eco-friendly products like washing powder and cleaning substances I have thought a lot more about things you can do to like having showers instead of baths, I started a compost heap in my garden and I am now an environmental champion at work so I'm now influencing others to do the same at work and hopefully they will take this home."