Originally appeared on Belfast Live
A Belfast model is preparing to shine on stage as she becomes the first person with a difference or disability to become a Miss Northern Ireland finalist.
25-year-old Bernadette Hagans is ready to inspire the next generation of girls across the world as she has never let losing her leg to cancer stop her from living her life.
Having modelled for major brands such as Kurt Geiger and Primark since being diagnosed with cancer in 2018, Bernadette’s all set to compete in the famous NI beauty pageant.
Speaking to Belfast Live, she said: “Just after I turned 22, I got diagnosed with synovial sarcoma and at the stage when my cancer was found, it had got into my nerves and blood vessels in my leg which meant I was going to have to have it amputated.
“In October of 2018, I had my leg amputated through the knee and I was able to learn to walk again in the middle of January and managed to be discharged in tens days. They thought it would take a lot longer but I was too determined.”
Only two weeks after being discharged from the hospital, Bernadette was already making waves online and ended up being signed by Zebedee modelling agency who represent people with disabilities and physical differences.
“That kind of came about because of Instagram - we started talking about one of their models and I just thought it was amazing. We spoke about how I had just lost my leg and they told me they would love to sign me and would I be able to come over to meet them.
“One of the reasons I just decided to go for it was because a lot of people were expecting me to hide my leg and was being told things like you can wear jeans but in my head, I was thinking that this isn’t anything to be ashamed of and I’m going to show it,” she explained.
Her impeccable fashion sense, colourful prosthetics and unapologetic openness about her journey has amounted to just under 20K people following her modelling career on Instagram.
Bernadette continued: “I knew I didn’t want to stick to a skin coloured leg because in my head I knew it wasn’t a human leg and I wanted to embrace it and I started messing about with colours and everything sort of kicked off from there.
“When I booked the Kurt Geiger job, that was unreal. We shot it all on FaceTime in my apartment and I remember they wanted photos of my face and the bag but I encouraged them to get my leg into it - they weren’t trying to make my leg the forefront but wanted to promote me and my story as well.”
Since being diagnosed, Bernadette knew she wanted to be able to reach other people going through what she did and use her experience to inspire and educate others.
“I want to try and be a source of information for anyone else that’s ever going to have to experience what I went through”, she said.
“As soon as I was diagnosed, I recorded a video in my car with my reaction to tell my story and literally from the get-go, I wanted to try and help people in any way I could.
“I think on the day I start walking I was out volunteering straight away for CLIC Sergeant.”
The model has now become an ambassador for cancer charities such as CLIC Sergeant, The Boom Foundation and The Cancer Fund for Children and uses her story to spread hope to those suffering.
She added: “I’m just buzzing that I can use what happened to me to help people - it’s all I want to do.”
After being approached by the Miss Northern Ireland organisation asking whether she would be interested in trying out for their heats, she decided to give it her all and bring a new level of representation to the competition.