EXCLUSIVE: Meet the caravan beauty queen running for Miss Great Britain

by Damien Sharkov
“I don’t sell caravans I sell dreams,” the woman who could be the next Miss Great Britain, tells us.
The mask of stuffy marketing slips all but a second later, as she laughs off the stock sales pitch and regales us with a much bubblier and much more subtly captivating picture of a caravan break in Marton Mere holiday village.
Helen Bates, also known as Miss Lancashire, has many talents, having shared the stage with Allo Allo’s Sue Hodge, toured across Britain and hosted her own television programme on BidTV.
There is also the small matter of her modelling career, having appeared in FHM, OK!, Star and Now, as well as on the catwalk. As of the last four weeks, she seems to have added selling caravans to her list of skills.
“I am more of a talking brochure”, she says rather humbly. “The park sells itself… It’s stunning,” she exclaims, as we entertain the idea of pointing out the equity in her statement.
Despite being at Marton Mere for just over a month, Helen seems to have wider knowledge of caravan holiday parks and the British countryside.
She tells us she became acquainted with the industry as an entertainer. “I used to tour the caravan parks with Marilyn Monroe tribute show,” she smiles.
With Miss Great Britain approaching next month she has found herself increasingly busy. We ask her how she manages to balance beauty queen and caravan commitments.
“It is not easy,” she admits “but my boss has been amazing with giving me time off.””Winning Miss Great Britain and representing my country would mean the world to me,” she adds. Born in Yorkshire and now beauty queen of Lancaster, Helen is putting an end to the War of the Roses. “I was brought up to be patriotic and proud to be British.”
Ordinarily we are wary of generic persuasion tactics, but with Helen’s dive into the very Blighty end of the leisure industry, it’s hard not to warm to her.
If any of you want to make sure Miss Great Britain goes to a leisure industry darling you can vote for Helen by texting MISSGB22 to 64343, which costs £1 as well as your standard network rate.
The Miss Great Britain finals are due to take place over the weekend of 14-15 November at the Athena, in Leicester.
We wish her the best of luck as she thanks us, hoping this is not the last time we will be reporting on her. We ponder patenting the idea for ‘Miss Caravan and Motorhome’.