An NHS pharmacist has reached the Miss England final after overcoming low self-confidence caused by a rare skin condition she's suffered from since the age of 12. Amrita Saund, 26, has lived with vitiligo, a disease which causes white patches to appear on the body due to a lack of the pigment melanin in the skin.
Amrita has had vitiligo almost all her life, which saw her confidence plummet as a teenager. She began covering up the marks under both of her eyes with make-up to avoid comments and jibes from classmates.
She later became a specialist pharmacist on the critical care unit at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital where she began overcoming her anxieties. It gave her the confidence to enter Miss England and last month Amrita swapped her NHS uniform for a pink diamante dress to compete on the catwalk in the semi-finals.
She was left gobsmacked to be crowned Miss Birmingham in her first-ever pageant appearance, landing herself a place in next month's Miss England final. Amrita, from Handsworth, Birmingham, said: “It’s been surreal.
"My life has completely changed in two months. I didn’t expect to get this far.
"I’ve never modelled before, I’ve never done pageants. I’ve literally just gone into it not knowing what to prepare for.
“I think things happen for a reason and it feels like fate. It feels right so I’m just going to enjoy and make the most of every opportunity that comes my way.
"My colleagues were surprised. They know me as the positive, power-walking, happy pharmacist, not Miss Birmingham.
“It is such an exciting opportunity. It does take a significant portion of my time outside of work to fundraise and campaign for it, but I do enjoy it too.”
Her success comes after years of suffering low self-esteem caused by her vitiligo, which still flares up from time to time. She added: "At 12-years-old, I had it around both of my eyes like big binoculars.
"People used to say things like ‘oh you’ve smudged your eyeshadow’. They didn’t say it in a mean way, but I was very conscious about it.
“I also had it on my shins. I started wearing tights and I started to wear a lot of makeup at a young age to cover it.”
However at 16, Amrita had a change of heart. She decided she no longer wanted to disguise her vitiligo and wanted to embrace her natural skin.
She added: “I said to myself, ‘I need to accept the way I look’. This is me and I’m proud of it.
“I stopped wearing makeup from that point forward. I wanted to have that control.
"It wasn’t for other people. It was for me.”
Her confidence grew so much that she decided to enter the Miss Birmingham pageant after seeing it advertised on Instagram. She was crowned Miss Birmingham on August 22 this year at the Taj 51 Birmingham Gate Suites and Residences in London.
In October, she will compete against 40 other girls from across the country for the Miss England title at the Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn. Amrita said: "Even if I don’t win, I think looking back at age 50 I will still be very proud of everything I have achieved.
"One of the rounds was a bare-faced entry where you had to post photos of yourself with no makeup on. That was a big deal for me because of my vitiligo.
"The bare-faced entry helped me to show that I was completely happy with where I was, mentally. I felt incredibly proud of myself for being able to represent me and my vitiligo.
"I felt emotional in a sense as it reminded me of how I felt when I was a child. I wanted to show girls that it’s literally nothing to do with the way you look but what’s inside you.
“I think girls need to feel more confident about that. I feel passionate, happy and proud to be that figure for young girls."
During the Miss England talent round Amrita said she was also proud to showcase her culture by Bhangra dancing for the judges. She added: "It was nice to be an ambassador for my culture, to show people more about what we are about.
"We’re not just Asians or British Asians. I think a lot of the time people think of us as just contributing to society through business, the NHS and academics.
"But there’s so much more we have to offer. I had never seen a British Indian Sikh woman wear the crown of Miss England so it remained as a hidden desire in me, but I didn't think that it could be me.
“Then I saw Dr Bhasha Mukerjee, an Indian junior doctor from Derby, crowned Miss England in 2019. It reignited that desire in me to become Miss England.
"Now I am no longer that shy ten-year-old girl." Amrita will represent Birmingham at the Miss England final on October 16 and 17.
