Leighton competition whizz sings her way to Barcelona

Hazel Markland, who has an impressive record for winning competitions, took part in Heart Radio’s SEAT challenge last week.

As part of the competition she had sent in a video explaining why she would be ideal to take on a challenge and last week found herself on Heart Radio with presenters Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden.

The challenge turned out to be a singing a karaoke version of Ella Henderson and Jax Jones’ hit record This is Real with Amanda expected to judge whether it had been good enough to win a holiday.

Imagine Hazel’s surprise when Amanda said she couldn’t possibly judge, and then called on Ella herself to make the casting vote.

"I’ve never sung in public before,” Hazel, aged 50 said. “”The song is a hard song to sing, it was fast and so high! I was really surprised when Ella called in on video, I had no clue when I was talking to Jamie and Amanda. It was such a surprise.”

Now Hazel, who is a balloon artist with OddART Events, and son Riley aged 10, are off to Barcelona!

Hazel said: “This year I turned a special zero and decided to take on new challenges, one being learning to ski as my son Riley is a freestyle skier and snowboarder!” She has booked her next lesson for next month.

But it’s not the first time Hazel, who says her hobby of entering competitions is “life affirming”, has struck lucky. Last year she went on a delayed holiday to Thailand, which had been won during lockdown, along with a trip to Disneyland Paris. She had also met the Hollywood star Will Smith on the red carpet for a showing of the live action film Aladdin, cycled coast to coast in the UK and taken her dad on a brewery trip.

"I enter competitions all the time,” she said. “It’s a life enriching hobby and the little wins are often as good as the big ones.”