A FORMER Devizes Carnival Queen has reached the final of the Mrs Galaxy UK contest and is using the occasion to raise money for an animal charity.

Sabrina North, 25, from Devizes won the the title of Mrs West Wiltshire Galaxy back in the summer and has been working hard fundraising for the Bath Cats and Dogs Home in the lead up to the finals on March 9 in Lancashire. She is now organising a sponsored dog walk to raise funds for the cause.

She said: "I am so thrilled to be in the finals of Mrs galaxy. It is so brilliant that there is a category now which allows married women to compete. "I've so far used my title to raise money for charities that I fully support and have been getting involved with local fundraising. My platform is Bath Cats and Dogs Home as I am a huge lover of dogs.

"I am at an age now where I have a lot more self confidence and I know what I want to do and that is to give back. I know you don't need pageants to do that but the friendships I have made already are just wonderful and I wouldn't have had this or some of my other experiences otherwise."

But Mrs North, who married her husband Clive, two years ago is no newcomer to competition. As a young girl the former Sabrina Adcock was named as Devizes Carnival’s Butterfly Queen before becoming Carnival Queen in 2008.

When she was 17 she was runner up in the Miss Wiltshire Times competition. Then in 2010 she was in the top five in Glam Nation, a competition run by Cosmopolitan magazine that was entered by more than 2,000 women.

A year later she got to the final of Miss Natural Curves aimed at women over dress size ten in a competition that promoted the more curvaceous figure.