A beauty queen says having a stroke at 17 which left her with permanent damage taught her to say yes to everything - and her life is better for it.

The medical episode left Georgie Holland, a Miss Universe Great Britain finalist, with no vision on her right side - meaning she can't see anything to the right of her.

But she says this hasn't stopped her - and has actually made her the person she is today.

Georgie, an operations manager from south London, reached the final of the beauty pageant this year.

And she said: “If I'd have told 17-year-old Georgie that I was going to do a pageant and enter Miss Universe she would have laughed in my face.

“I did go through some dark times and didn’t know what was going to happen to me in the future.

“I had quite a negative spell where I thought ‘I can't do this’, but you have to be positive in life.

“There are always people that are going through something difficult.

"It was definitely a difficult time for me but I've come so far now and have such a positive outlook. I wouldn’t be the person I am without it.”

Georgie first noticed something during a dance lesson at school when she suddenly completely lost her sight.

Believing it was a migraine, she went home and tried to recover in bed for a few days – but by the third day she was slurring her words.

When she tried to ask her dad and brother to help her unlock her phone because she’d forgotten her password – and had forgotten the word ‘password’ - they realised something was seriously wrong.

She was rushed to hospital and following a CT scan, Georgie was told by doctors that she’d had a stroke.

She was kept in hospital and told her vision could be affected – and says to this day her right eye is vision-impaired, meaning she can’t learn to drive.

Despite never finding out what caused the stroke, she didn’t let the experience define her, and now dedicates her free time to charity projects and pursuing her passion for beauty pageants.

Georgie, who is sponsored by Modu Aesthetics, said: “Since the stroke I've lived every day like it’s my last - you don’t know when its going to be and I've been given second chance.

“I never had any health issues prior to the stroke.

"You’ve got to act quite quickly with a stroke but because it took a couple of days to realise what it was, it meant that blood cells had died.

“They couldn’t really determine the cause and since then I've been doing research and working with a women's health company to find out what actually went on.

“Since then, I’ve seen a very positive side of life and now I’m doing a diploma in social media marketing, I’m an operations manager and I work at food banks and do a lot of charity work.

“It ties into the pageantry as you have to do charity work in the competitions.

“I’ve always watched pageants and enjoyed looking at them and finding out about the amazing incredible women involved.

“I was watching the Miss Universe pageant and it gave me some inspiration - I’m 28, it’s the last time I can compete, so I thought why not go for the big one and start my journey with them.

“Pageants don’t get enough light on that and seen as negative or just a beauty pageant but if you delve deeper the women are inspirational and empowering.

“It’s about supporting other women and not what you see on social media with women just on a stage.

“I say yes to everything now, I met my partner and moved in with him after one date and we’ve been together for a year.

“I think everyone should do some kind of charity work each week and humble yourself – you realise there's more to life and there are people who are worse off and do need support and extra help.”