A FINALIST in the Miss England competition from York, who is also an ambassador in the battle against plastic use, joined a canal clean with a paralympic champion.

Jennifer Carless, who has also been named Miss North Yorkshire, has been using her time in the Miss England competition for good after becoming an ambassador for WASUP (World Against Single Use Plastic).

Jennifer was recently invited by WASUP’s founder, Professor Abdul Rashid Gatrad OBE, Deputy Lieutenant to her Majesty the Queen, to join their team in Walsall on a litter pick with Ellie Simmonds OBE, paralympian gold medallist.

WASUP was founded in 2017 and now, with the help of Jennifer being introduced as their Chief International Ambassador, has groups in over a dozen countries - helping to tackle the problem of single use plastic.

WASUP is also a community brand with the Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022. WASUP has set up a competition encouraging people to collect 2022 bags of litter by the time the games begin.

Commenting on this, Jennifer said: “It is a fantastic opportunity and platform to enable us to spread the WASUP message to all ages across 53 countries of the Commonwealth.”

Th Miss England final is being planned for when restrictions are lifted at Coventry’s Conference and Event Centre on June 24.

Jennifer, 16, said: “The modern day Miss England really is a lot more than that. It is about empowering young ladies to achieve their goals.”

As well as reducing plastic waste, The Miss England campaign has allowed Jennifer to raise awareness of other issues she is “passionate” about, such as reducing carbon foot print.