A HAMPSHIRE pupil is bidding to win one of the country’s most prestigious youth awards for science and engineering.

Barton Peveril’s Holly Pearson, from Eastleigh, has earned a place in the finals of the 2013 National Science and Engineering Competition with her cancer research project.

The 17-year-old will now go head to head with other young people from across the UK.

Holly’s project came off the back of a four-week placement last summer at a cancer research laboratory in Southampton.

The teenager worked on attempting to improve the body’s own response to cancer through T cells – so that they divide more or more quickly so the body can fight cancer better.

Her research has already led to a Gold CREST award and Platinum Exscitec award.

She will now be exhibiting her shortlisted project to judges and more than 60,000 people at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair 2013 in London, from March 14-17.