Karen Hannan was born in 1963 and became the 30th contestant to win the Miss United Kingdom pageant.

Mellor was discovered by a model agent while modelling bridal wear for a work colleague's wife. In May 1987 she won the Miss Derby

Derby

Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

 contest, qualifying her for entry to the Miss United Kingdom contest, which she won in August of that year. The 24-year-old had been with her boyfriend Stuart Hannan since she was 19, and he proposed to her backstage after the announcement that she'd won the competition.

She came tenth in the subsequent Miss World

Miss World

The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951...

 competition. Being Miss UK meant that she had to stay single for the duration of her office. A month after she passed the crown on, she married Stuart.

Life after the pageant

Karen and Stuart Hannan have three children and run a chip van

Fish and chips

Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...

 in Barnsleywith, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Personal quotations

"The world of beauty pageants is superficial, but I don't regret a minute. To me there was nothing degrading or exploitative. It was such a lot of fun."

"Nobody made us enter these competitions, no-one forced anybody to watch. It's not wrong to enjoy your looks while you're young."