For image-conscious teenage girls, losing your hair must be a terrifying prospect.

But Amy Harwood has not only overcome having the condition alopecia, she has raised £10,000 to try and find a cure for it.

And the defiant 15-year-old has signed up to a modelling agency saying: “You don’t have to have hair to be beautiful.”

Amy is also taking part in a Channel 4 documentary on how young people cope against adversity to become successful.

She has been nominated by her proud mother Sarah Harwood for a Pride in Medway award.

Amy, who is studying for her GCSEs, first noticed her hair was coming out two years ago.

Mum Sarah, 45, said: “Amy had long hair down to her chest. We were on holiday when she noticed a clump had come out the size of a 50p bit.

“A few weeks later she went to the hairdresser and was told that more had come out, so we went to the doctors.

“After about six months she lost her hair and in her summer break went completely bald. It was very distressing for her and for the rest of us as a family.

“But Amy has been incredibly brave. Her own hair comes and goes and she deals with these battles every day.”

Since being diagnosed with the condition for which there is no cure, Amy has worked tirelessly for the alopecia charity AAR-UK Autoimmune Alopecia Research UK.

Amy takes inspiration from people she has met within the alopecia charity, including its patron, Craig Gillies, former English rugby union player. She also admires Joanna Rowsell, the Olympic cyclist who competed in her sport while bald and refused the offer of wearing a wig when she accepted her gold medal.

Amy, her mum and sister Ellie, 11, have done a 10k run at Mote Park, Maidstone and arranged a Pimm’s and burger evening and coffee mornings at their home on the Hoo Peninsula, all supported by dad Anthony, 45.

"Amy has been incredibly brave. Her own hair comes and goes and she deals with these battles every day" - Amy's mum Sarah

She’s now been nominated for a Pride in Medway award in recognition of her determination in coping with the condition.

Amy said: “I am honoured, if not a little embarrassed to be nominated. It is not about me. My focus now is helping others in the same position as me.

"Alopecia should not stand in the way of what you want to do.

“At one point as I was growing up I wanted to be a model which is why I signed up for the agency.”

Amy enrolled for the Bizzykidz multi-talent agency based in south east London.

A crew from the television channel filmed Amy and her family at home and at an audition in Nottingham. The programme is due to be screened in the next few weeks.