AN A-LEVEL student is swapping her books for the semi-finals of Miss England.

Seventeen-year-old Amber Hazelton wrote off to competition organisers when she was just 15, and forgot all about the contest when they replied that she was too young.

But her mum Pam said she was ecstatic when she was called before this year’s regional heats, inviting her to reapply now that she was old enough.

The St Mary’s College pupil, who has represented Lancashire in the under-14 and under-16 national netball championship teams, is currently studying A level photography, textiles and PE and hopes to take a degree in photography and become a fashion photographer.

Amber has won heat four of the Miss Fresh Photographic regional competition, which has won her a place in the Miss England semi-final at Champneys leisure resort in Leicestershire in June.

The former Oakhill College pupil, of Hollins Lane, Accrington, has already won £500 worth of prizes including designer swimwear and free membership of an online casting and audition service. She said: “I couldn’t believe it when the organisers phoned me up telling me to reapply. It’s brilliant that they’d even remembered me.

“I didn’t think I would win this heat at all and I was over the moon when I did. It’s been fantastic.”

Her mum Pam said: “There have been thousands of girls who have applied for this and she’s just over the moon that she’s managed to get to the semi finals.”