A YOUNG author was delighted to hear that she was one of only 3,800 to go through to the second round of judging in BBC Radio 2's 500 word story competition.

Catherine Walch's story, Through the Eyes of Emily Wibbleton, tells of how one girl took her one true friend - a stinky, scraggy alley cat called Colonel Tom - to show and tell on the day of a school inspection.

Catherine, a year 8 student from Applemore College, had her story selected from a record 120,000 entries this year so the competition was 'fierce'.

She explains how she developed Emily's character whilst watching 'a really very exceedingly skinny lady and her equally skinny dog who march about where I live' and that she wanted to include an animal in her story, but not a pet, so a fat tabby alley cat seemed perfect.

“It's a shame that I was only allowed 500 words,” she said.

“I kept running over and had to cut bits out - it seems like a lot but really isn't. It didn't take long to write, twenty minutes maybe.”

Catherine has just found out that unfortunately her story has not been selected to be one of the final 50 in her age group, but she says she is not disappointed.

“I'm so glad I entered, it has given me confidence to enter more competitions now, despite the fact that I didn't win this one”.