SPORTY teacher Gill Burns will be rubbing shoulders with the elite at a prestigious social event next month.

For the 32-year-old from Sinclair Avenue, Prescot, has been invited to join 500 'women achievers' from all walks of life and areas of the country at the annual 'Women of the Year Lunch' at the Savoy Hotel in London on Monday, October 7.

Gill was selected to attend the lunch, from more than 1,200 nominees, for her outstanding achievements in the world of womens rugby. She has played international rugby since 1988, and is her country's captain and most-capped player with 30 appearances. England are the current World Champions and also hold the 1995-96 Grand Slam title.

The former Prescot Comprehensive School pupil, who also enjoys dancing and helps her mum Ann to run the local Winburn School of Dancing, was the first woman to referee at Twickenham in a curtain-raiser to the 1991 men's Grand Slam decider between England and France.

She said: "It is a great honour to be invited to such a prestigious event. I will be sitting alongside so many of Britain's leading women from all walks of life."

The lunch is being held in aid of the Greater London Fund for the Blind, and to date the event has raised more than £1 million for the charity to enhance the lives of visually impaired people.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.