Woman born 14 weeks early to represent Conwy in Miss Wales final

Seren Jones-Hughes, 20, was born 14 weeks early at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Bodelwyddan in 2001, weighing roughly one pound and eight ounces at birth, was delighted to earn a second chance at appearing in the final, after COVID-19 and a family emergency caused her to drop out last year.

A qualifier for Miss World, the largest and longest-running pageant on the planet, Miss Wales will announce its 2022 winner on Sunday, May 8 after a three-day event including an empowerment day, a charity ball and a catwalk show.

The events will take place in the Holland House Hotel in Cardiff and The Riverfront in Newport, with the Miss World final taking place in Puerto Rico at the end of 2022.

Seren in her entry for the 2020 final, which was pushed back to 2021 due to COVID-19 and which she then had to withdraw from

Seren said: “I was meant to be born on June 21, 2001, but God knows why I wanted to come out 14 weeks early. My mum always compares me to a bag of sugar!

“My bed was a sick bowl, and they had to get doll clothes from the shop in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd to fit on me so I had something to wear.

“My lungs collapsed as well, so I had to have injections; I had a blood transfusion and still have scars today on my hands from it.

“I was in hospital for about four to five months after that, and fair play to my mum; I don’t know how she managed.

“You see stories about babies like me and I just think how lucky I am that I’m fully functioning, healthy and pretty much normal, I think!

“I’m very thankful to be alive, to be honest; I don’t think they were very hopeful that I was going to make it!”

Seren, who is in the final of studying for her law degree at Bangor University and works as a veterinary receptionist at Prospect House in Colwyn Bay, also volunteered at Conwy’s Idlewild Animal Sanctuary last year.

There, she learnt how to bring injured animals back to good health, while she also has a puppy who she helped to hand-rear after being abandoned with four other siblings.

Seren and Nancy at Idlewild Animal Sanctuary, where she volunteered last year

After having to withdraw from last year’s Miss Wales, which was pushed back from 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, she was “buzzing” when she found out in December that she had been given another opportunity.

She added: “I was buzzing that I was able to get a second chance at it after all the hard work that I put in last year.

“I was a finalist in 2020, but because of COVID, it was pushed back until 2021. Trying to organise events was really difficult because of COVID, so I was just happy that I was given a second chance because last year, everything that could possibly have gone wrong did go wrong.

“Three days before the final last year, I had to pull out because I had a family emergency. I was gutted I couldn’t take part in it; hopefully I’ll be able to do it again this year.

“I was volunteering at Idlewild Animal Sanctuary for a few months during COVID, helping the animals that we got in, feeding them - I remember I had to feed a poor little baby bird and was panicking because I had no idea what I was doing!

“If an animal was injured, we’d have to bandage it up. It was a learning curve, to be honest; quite scary.”

“You (winner of Miss Wales) get to go to Miss World, which last year was in Puerto Rico. You go there for a month in the sun and represent Wales there, so it’s pretty amazing.”

For more about Miss Wales, go to: www.misswales.co.uk.