Student nurse is crowned Miss Wales 2025

Helena Hawke, a 20-year-old student nurse from Caerleon, has been crowned Miss Wales 2025.

Helena has a deep rooted family heritage in the military and hopes to continue her families legacy and join the RAF post-graduation.

In preparation, she joined the RAF Air Cadets at 14 with the aim of gaining not only a flavour of her future, but skills that can be applied in day-to-day life.

Cadet

Helena recalls her fondest memory as a cadet was being able to fly a plane before she’d driven a car. Although she thrived at the squadron, she couldn’t look past the transparent gender imbalance; for a time being the only young woman present on parade nights.

With this in mind, she held her first open evening two years ago specifically targeting female cadets to enrol. Open evenings have been held annually since, and she is proud to say more female cadets are now enrolled in her squadron than their male counterparts.

Having aged-out as a cadet, Helena is now a Civilian Commissioned Officer at 1367 Caerleon Squadron teaching cadets radio comms, flight simulation and her speciality – the glockenspiel in the marching band.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

During her year as Miss Wales, Helena aims to deliver a speaking tour called ‘Hawke’s Horizons’ specifically encouraging girls to sign up for the cadets to learn life skills and inspiring young women to consider the military for a career.

As well as studying and teaching at cadets, Helena also volunteers at her local sports club, coaching a group of young children the principles of cricket. Outside of coaching, she enjoys playing cricket and hockey.

Goal

Helena said: “Being Miss Wales has been a goal of mine for so many years. I’ve always looked up to former winners and been inspired by how they carry themselves.

“Now the role is mine, I’m going to work really hard to maintain the legacy. Having the title of Miss Wales is an honour – and I want to do it correctly.”

The Miss Wales 2025 final took place on the weekend at The Riverfront in Newport and celebrated the achievements of 29 young women from around Wales in front of a crowd of supporters.

The final involved three appearances on the stage including the patriotic Welsh wear opener; a red dress catwalk; and the traditional evening wear parade. All finalists also had one to one interviews with a panel of six judges.

As well as the catwalk event, the contestants took part in a Miss Wales Empowerment Day to help them in their personal development and leadership skills and attended a Miss Wales Charity Ball where a number of awards were given out to contestants who have excelled in their Miss Wales journey.

Fundraising

In the run up to the event, Helena and the other finalists had been tasked with fundraising for Beauty With A Purpose, the Miss World charity which helps disadvantaged children worldwide and supporting A-Sisterhood which empowers and protects women in the UK and overseas.

Now, Helena will combine her nursing studies with a year of appearances as Miss Wales and will have the privilege of representing Wales at Miss World next year.

The runners-up on Saturday night were Ellie Corcoran from Anglesey, who came second, and Romilly-Evans Powell from Risca who came third.