Beauty queen Milly Tritton could become the next Miss England after the aspiring model swapped her netball kit for an evening gown.

Sports-mad Milly, 22, who works at the Jack Wills clothes shop in Canterbury High Street, has been crowned Miss Kent - securing her passage to the national finals in Torquay in June.

Milly was one of more than 20,000 young hopefuls gunning for the Miss England crown and the field is now down to 59.

The fashion student entered pageants after being scouted at 16, when she was runner-up for Miss European.

Milly, from Chestfield, said: "My main goal now is to win Miss England and represent my local community, county and the whole of Kent.

"I realised that Miss England only runs up to 24 and if I wanted to do it I had to do it pretty quickly, so to be in the running for it automatically after winning Miss Kent is amazing."

She was crowned county queen in front of her parents Kathy, 47, and Steve, 49, and admitted she was overwhelmed to be announced the winner.

Milly said: "When the girls were placed, I kept thinking 'keep smiling', because I didn't want to look moody if another girl was announced the winner.

"My mum was crying, everyone had flowers and cards, so the emotions were running high."

Milly is also gearing up to take part in the Great North Run alongside her mum in September, and said the competition has led to new friendships.

She said: "Everyone has made contact and congratulated me in some way, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, a text or call.

"I've made some great friends and everyone was really lovely and happy to hear I had won. Compared to how they could have been, everyone’s been supportive.

"Beauty pageants have quite a bad representation, but it's actually more of a team thing.

"Everyone looks out for each other, and everyone was helping do each other's make-up and hair."

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