A UNIVERSAL SAVIOUR

Sophie Wilkins will take part in next week’s Miss Universe Ireland competition – a dream she decided to chase after a horrific accident made her reevaluate everything. Thankfully recovered, now she says...

The beauty pageant giving me back my confidence.

Once upon a time, beauty pageants were dismissed as a vacuous parade of bikini-clad beauties with toothy, pleasing smiles. Yet these days, it takes more than just a pretty face to pass muster at the Miss Universe contest. In fact, guts, guile and a keen social awareness is more likely to get a girl ahead in the contest stakes these days.

This year’s Irish contestants run an impressively wide gamut, from classics graduates and business owners to playwrights and sports science instructors. Among them is 27-year-old Sophie Wilkins, who knows a thing or two about overcoming challenges. And the Artane beauty has no truck with people who reckon that the Miss Universe Ireland is not much more than a procession of gorgeous girls.

‘Miss Universe want someone who wants to create changes in their community and then the world,’ she explains. ‘They want someone who isn’t just taught the right things to say, but has their own points of view and knows about the issues of the world.

‘The women who compete come in all shapes and sizes and abilities. Miss Universe Spain [Angela Ponce] is a transgender woman. They’re all very successful, driven women. Last year’s winner [Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters] was almost kidnapped in South Africa, and then went on to train women in self-defence. You’re not just strutting your stuff out there.’

In the run-up to the national final on August 2 in Dublin’s Mansion House, Sophie has to juggle her preparations for the contest along with 12-hour night shifts at Bloomfield Hospital in Rathfarnham. In her work as a psychiatric nurse, she admits that no two days are the same.

‘It’s definitely not your normal 9 to 5 job,’ she smiles. ‘Some days, people can be feeling especially vulnerable, and in the high observation unit anything could happen. You can’t take your personal life to work – you want to be in good form and be energetic, and try to make a difference in someone’s day.

‘I’m not an office type of girl and I’m very energetic, I love speaking to people,’ she adds. ‘I didn’t know too much about mental health when I was going to college in 2009 but since I did, I haven’t looked back.’

Working in close proximity with people with mental health challenges, Sophie is determined to use her platform as a Miss Universe contestant to further highlight mental health awareness in Ireland. ‘I can see how people would be very vulnerable, and even how it

I’M A LOT MORE THAN WHAT A DOCTOR TELLS ME I’M ABLE TO DO”

affects families,’ says Sophie. ‘People have raised awareness of suicide in this country, but we still have one of the highest suicide rates in Europe.

‘I work in Bloomfield Hospital in Rathfarnham and it’s the only facility in Dublin that specialises in Huntington’s disease,’ she says. ‘There just aren’t enough facilities in the country. If you think of online bullying, social media and Photoshop, and the message this gives out to young girls, you start to see why young people really need to be educated on these things.’

Sophie initially saw the Miss Universe Ireland contest advertised on Instagram some months ago. At 5ft 9, many people had encouraged her down the years to try her hand at modelling. The chance to speak publicly about the issues close to her heart was certainly an incentive to apply for the contest.

‘I’m having the absolute time of my life,’ she enthuses. ‘I was on holidays when I got the call that I was in the final, so I changed my flights and came home straight away. The next day I was shooting with a photographer in New York. I’d never done anything like it but it’s so much fun.’

After enduring a horrific car accident in 2014, Sophie has vowed to seize the day and try her hand at the things she had previously only dreamed of. It has been a long and arduous road back from that tragic incident.

That weekday morning in 2014 started like any other, and Sophie was driving herself to work when she was involved in a two-car collision. The investigation into the incident is still ongoing, so Sophie can’t divulge the full details of that fateful morning.

‘I will say it was, hands down, the worst experience of my life,’ she admits. ‘I can remember everything really clearly, though I had gone into shock and was in a bit of a daze. I do remember the other driver was genuine, trying to calm me down, and was very good to me.’

She rang her father, who soon arrived on the scene. ‘He was very shook,’ Sophie recalls. ‘My mum was a bit upset when she saw the car.’

She returned home to recover. As the day went on, the adrenaline and shock wore off, and Sophie realised that she was in excruciating pain. ‘I was trying to stay strong for my family, but then I realised I was going to have to go to the hospital,’ Sophie recalls.

It was the start of a two-year recovery process, with several ups and down and she strived to overcome multiple back and shoulder injuries. ‘For the first three weeks, I slept about an hour a night. I was up crying and screaming with pain,’ she recalls. ‘I needed help washing my hair as I couldn’t even lift my head back.

‘I wasn’t able to hold my niece and nephew, or even hold my phone as it was too heavy,’ she admits. ‘I wasn’t told whether I would even fully recover. I wasn’t able to tell whether I would be able to carry a child in the future. When I did eventually go back to work, it was very hard – I’d do one day, and then have to take four days of rest after that.’

And yet, Sophie persevered with twice-weekly physiotherapy sessions and, in time, made a full recovery.

‘I started to realise last November that I was really coming on and I could walk further, and I was back working a lot more. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. In saying that, it did teach me that I’m a lot more than what a doctor tells me I’m able to do. I’m able to decide on a goal, work towards it and get it, without listening to what other people say. It’s about appreciating what you have, and to stay positive.’

Many Miss Universe Ireland contestants have gone on to lucrative modelling or broadcasting careers, and while Sophie is doubtless passionate about her work, the last few years have taught her grab life with both hands. ‘I’d love to do things like modelling if the opportunity arose,’ she says. ‘Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since 2014, and to be healthy enough to do this pageant is surreal in itself. For now, I’m just happy to take everything as it comes.’

FOR more information on Sophie, see instagram.com/sophieewilkins. For more information on Miss Universe Ireland visit missuniverseireland.eu and to keep up to date on all that goes on behind the scenes follow @missuniverseireland for live chats with director Brittany Mason and the contestants. Tickets for the final are priced from €50 and are available via Eventbrite