Unafraid of a challenge, Rose Giovino, 67, has just taken on her most exciting one yet
Stepping on to the scales, I frowned. I’d gained weight, reaching 13 and a half stone, and I’d lost my confidence. “I feel invisible,” I said to my husband, George. So, after receiving my first state pension letter in July 2022, I vowed to make a real change. I lowered my intake of unhealthy foods and replaced them with wholemeal bread, rice and pasta. In six months, I’d lost almost three stone and I felt amazing.
Then in January 2023, I noticed an advert on Facebook for Miss Great Britain, but there was no upper age limit for the competition. There was now a ‘Ms Classic’ award for those aged 45 years and over. I’d always loved a challenge. At the age of 45 I became a police officer, and I was the oldest-ever female recruit in Sussex. Now, reading about Miss Great Britain, I just had to enter. “This challenge is exactly what I need,” I beamed.
I supplied a photo and wrote a short synopsis about my life, and earned a place as one of the finalists. The 78th finals of the competition would be held in the Athena venue in Leicester during October. All three age categories of Miss Great Britain were held at once, so I’d be competing alongside 65 other women, many of them young enough to be my daughter. The training included how to walk the catwalk properly. We had to do this in three outfits for the different rounds – a fashion round, an evening wear round and a swimwear round.
Miss Great Britain would be supporting both Cancer Research UK and Alex’s Wish, a muscular dystrophy charity. I was pleased about this because
