A Hackney woman is a finalist in a beauty pageant to find Miss Caribbean UK 2020.

Corneela Palmer, a maternity phlebotomist at Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is competing in her first beauty pageant in aid of the Jamaica Education Taskforce (JET).

This is a not for profit organisation set up in 2013 through the Jamaican High Commission alongside the National Education Trust of the Jamaica Ministry of Education (MoE).

She is hoping to raise £1,000 and has been preparing for the competition in her spare time.

READ MORE: Donate unused toiletries at Hackney’s first Beauty BankIn the final she will have to partake in a number of rounds, including a carnival round, an evening gowns round and a communication round, where she will be quizzed by the judges.

This is her first beauty pageant and she said the preparation time had been cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Corneela also noted she is happy the pageant wasn’t cancelled outright due to the coronavirus crisis.

With some modelling experience under her belt and having watched previous years live, Corneela summoned the courage to take part this year herself.

She has found juggling her fulltime healthcare job and the pageant show difficult, with fitting preparation around her 12-hour shifts a challenge.

However, she hopes any money raised for JET will help a child’s “dream come true”.

“I will be left feeling very proud and feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders just to know I have accomplished one of my biggest goals in helping a less fortunate family in an area they lack,” she said.

Corneela was born in Jamaica, moved to England at the age of four, and then relocated to Hackney in September 2003.

Each of the participants in the Miss Caribbean UK beauty pageant chooses a charity to support.

If she won Miss Caribbean UK 2020, Corneela would be given an £1,000 prize and intends to travel to the 14 parishes of Jamaica helping children who are not wealthy enough to afford a proper education.

One day, she hopes to do the same for many of the islands within the Caribbean.

JET is setting up Corneela’s donation page, and it will be live soon.

Vote for Corneela at the pageant’s website or by liking Corneela’s picture on the Miss Caribbean UK Instagram page.