CHARLOTTE Corrigan may only be 10 but she could one day be challenging for the coveted Pullitzer Prize.

The Accrington schoolgirl has made it to the final 10 of a national writing competition.

Charlotte, of Benjamin Hargreaves Primary School, entered a piece of her writing - about the importance of playing sports - to the Stabilo Young Journalist of the Year competition.

And she was amazed when her article was chosen from hundreds of entries to go through to the final, with the winner to be announced on Monday, August 25.

Charlotte, who lives with mum and dad Joy and Lance in Queen Elizabeth Crescent, said: “I just like thinking up bits of creative stories. I would really like to be a writer when I grow up.

“For this competition I wrote an article about me doing tennis, running and netball and other sports and I said even if you don’t like it, at the end of the day it does you good.

“It was really amazing to get into the top 10.”

An excerpt from Charlotte’s entry, entitled ‘Give sport a chance’, reads: “Sport became a good friend to me and introduced me to a whole host of new friends.

“I may never win Wimbledon, or compete for my country.

“Perhaps I’ll never get to play netball for my county.

“But I still feel that sport is important. With sport in your life, you’ll never be lonely and you’ll always be happy.”

Mum Joy, an English teacher, said: “Charlotte used to be really quiet and then she started going running and playing netball at Hyndburn Athletics Club and she grew in confidence.

“Her article is about how more people should do sport, not just for fitness reasons, but because it is good for you socially.

“We are very proud of her achievement.”

Vanya Hunter, marketing manager at Stabilo, said: “It was such a tough job whittling down all the hundreds of entries to just 10 finalists.

“The standard of writing this year was so high, we really do feel that we have uncovered some real talent.”

The writing competition, which is run by Stabilo in association with children’s newspaper First News, aims to find the best Young Journalist of the Year in Britain.

The winner will receive a column on First News’ website and products for every member of their class.