Jodie Whitehead has scooped third place in the ‘Miss International UK’ contest while using the beauty platform to help tidy the streets and parks of north London.

The 24-year-old from Muswell Hill, who regularly takes time off from beauty competitions and her estate agent’s job in Hampstead to sweep up litter, was a close second runner-up in the contest - but did scoop the ‘Miss Photographic’ and ‘Best Appearance’ titles.

She also uses beauty pageant publicity to promote the OCD UK charity which helps people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

“It was great to be a part of Miss International for another year,” Jodie told the Ham and High. “I have edged closer to my dream of getting the title one day.”

Jodie is using the spotlight for her work when she goes out litter-picking in Alexandra Park in her self-proclaimed “bag it and bin it” campaign as well as raising awareness for the OCD charity.

“It was great to promote the litter campaign on my platform,” she adds. “Next year’s dress is already underway as I pull out all the stops.”

She has been raising funds and advocating as the OCD charity’s own ‘queen’ while also getting busy setting up a volunteer group for litter picking at Alexandra Park, a stone’s throw from her front door.

“I know the council is very busy,” Jodie acknowledges. “But what a better world if everyone took 10 minutes a week to join me and pick up litter.”

Jodie’s day job is an estate agent manager at Dexter’s Hampstead branch where she first came across piles of street litter while out posting marketing letters through front doors.

“I couldn’t help noticing rubbish everywhere,” Jodie recalled. “It was taking the beauty away from many of Hampstead’s listed buildings.”

She recently cleared rubbish from the duck pond in Alexandra Park such as bottle lids, vapes and even tailors' dummies.

Commonly dropped items in the streets are plastic tampon applicators, gloves and “loads of vapes”, she has found — but mostly plastic bottles that can end up in sewers and rivers and eventually in the world’s oceans if they’re not picked up by Jodie.

Anyone interested in joining Jodie’s “bag it and bin it” volunteers can drop an email to: alison.whitehead45@btinternet.com