Watch: Shropshire teenager has sights on pageant title
A Shropshire teenager who still suffers from injuries from a car crash last year is appearing in the final of Miss Birmingham this weekend.
Annabelle Pritchard, 17, from Alveley, has tinnitus as a result of the accident. It leaves her with a high-pitched noise in her ear all the time.
She said: "I have to have the TV on at night so I can get to sleep. It affects me more when I am stressed and I have a tinnitus device to wear when that happens.
"It looks like a hearing aid and helps me be less distracted by the noise in my ear." she said.
"I will have to wear it during the competition, which I feel a bit self-conscious about, but it is flesh coloured so shouldn't be too noticeable."
Annabelle also has asthma, a condition diagnosed when she was five, which leaves her breathless and she uses both steroid and relief inhalers to treat it.
But she has refused to let physical difficulties hold her back and entered her first beauty pageant, Miss Shropshire, last November.
She said: "I enjoyed the experience so much that I decided to enter Miss Birmingham, which I was able to do as my family are from the city. I was thrilled to be chosen as one of the 40 finalists from the 800 who entered."
As part of the Miss Birmingham event entrants have to wear five outfits and for one of them Annabelle will be wearing a dress inspired by her parents' 30th wedding anniversary in May. Her mother Lorraine, 51, said: "I think she is really brave to tackle these events and I am so proud of her entering Miss Birmingham."
Annabelle is a sixth form pupil at Oldbury Wells School in Bridgnorth, studying A-levels in psychology, health and social care, and modern history.
Well known in the town for her flamboyant 1950s dress-style, she also loves to sing, a passion that drove her to enter Britain's Got Talent last October.
She said: "I sang Bring Me To Life by Evanescence and was filmed a couple of times at the auditions.
"It was pretty nerve wracking, but I had such a good time that I have now entered The X Factor."
The winner of the beauty pageant, which is being held on Sunday at the Burlington Hotel in the city, will go forward to the Miss England competition in June.
