A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be a part of the Bristol Fashion Week Festival…. And what an experience that was!

2 weeks prior to the festival I was asked to go down to London for a casting. I queued up in a line full of beautiful actual models and a few diverse models and I thought there was no chance I was going to get the job!! After the casting me and mum went to Covent Garden and made the most of the rest of the day before getting the train home.

A few days later I got an email to say I got the job!! I was over the moon ☺ I had modelled a few times for The Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust but I had never walked down a real life catwalk before! For me also the thought of a week away staying in a hotel alone was a huge challenge let alone walking down the catwalk with 250 people watching you 4 times a day! I set off down to Bristol only 10 days later!

Walking down the catwalk was at first very nerve wracking and that was only the rehearsals. There were 19 models and each of us had to remember our routines. Luckily they were quite straight forward. We had 7 outfit changes within the 30-minute show, thankfully though we all had dressers who all did a fab job and we had no problem with the quick changes. The loud music which was played whilst the catwalk was on got us all having a good old boogie backstage!

It was great to meet and work with 18 different models from all around the UK from diverse models such as myself, plus size models to mature models. They were all really lovely and made my time there a lot of fun!!

For me my main worry was walking in the different shoes for each walk. I have to adjust my ankle to the height of the shoe and sometimes in a fashion trainer it can be hard to get right, leaving me limping more than usual or making it more difficult to walk!! But my leg decided to cooperate most of the time meaning I could walk confidently and feeling proud☺

One of the highlights of my week was meeting the lovely Giovanna Fletcher and the legend Caryn Franklin! They were both such wonderful ladies who had such inspiring stories to tell! Of course boyfriend Phil insisted I told Giovanna how much of a fan he was of her husband Tom from McFly… cringe!

My Mum, Dad, Aunty Ginny and Phil all travelled down to Bristol to watch the final 2 shows of the week! It was lovely to have their support and to have them there.

I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity and I would LOVE to do one again at some point in the future if I get the chance.