FIREFIGHTERS came to the rescue of a York slimmers' group as they struggled to decide who should win the sexiest slimmer crown.

Dringhouses and St Chad's Church Slimming World groups from St Chad's Church, Campleshon Road, York, and Dringhouses Church met at St Edward the Confessor Church Hall to battle it out for the prize of Miss Slinky.

As an added twist to the festivities Sue Hayes, the group's consultant, had not told the contestants about the guest judges from York Fire Station.

She said: "I got everything ready and then got a message that they had been called to an incident so I started without them, but then they turned up.

"It just went absolutely deathly silent because I think everyone thought that they were responding to some kind of incident at the hall - then they realised that they were there for them.

"They were great, they even offered the children a chance to look inside the fire engine.

"They had been there for about 15 minutes and we were just about to award the prizes when they were called out again to another incident."

The winners were Colina Schofield from the Dringhouses group and Katherine Curzon from the St Chad's Church group. Both women will now have the chance of winning £1,000 in the national final.

Sue said: "It went really well. Everybody brought in a low calorie dish of their favourite buffet food and we raised £65 for Barnardos through a raffle."

She said she would like to thank all the people who donated prizes including the Odeon cinema, Boots and Nestl.