Man’s death ‘not suspicious’
POLICE have confirmed a man died after witnesses reported seeing several police and ambulance vehicles in Greystoke Avenue, Southmead yesterday morning.
Avon and Somerset Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
A spokesperson said: “We were called shortly after 7.30am ... to reports of a sudden death in a premises in Greystoke Avenue.
“The man’s death is not being treated as suspicious at this time.
“Enquiries continue to be made on behalf of the coroner.”
The man’s next of kin have been informed.
❝ It is about trying to redefine beauty as a whole - that we all deserve to feel beautiful in our own skin Emma-Jay Webber
APLUS-SIZE model who was crowned runner-up in Miss British Beauty Curve is determined to prove that there are no barriers in becoming a modern beauty queen.
Emma-Jay Webber has already won four major titles competing at national and international level and, in 2019, became the UK’s first openly gay beauty queen.
Ms Webber, who lives in the Emersons Green area of South Gloucestershire, said she got involved in pageants in 2017 as she was looking for something to improve her self-confidence.
“The competition was Miss British Beauty Curve and I came runner-up,” she said. “I then went to represent England in the international competition and came third.
“That is the point I knew what pageants were about and I fell in love with it.
“It is so different to what people think.”
Ms Webber, who grew up in South Bristol, then decided to enter – and won – a mainstream pageant where she was one of the few plussize women, which she said felt incredible.
The 38-year-old played football for most of her childhood and studied a degree in football science.
Then, after her marriage came to a sudden end in 2016, her selfesteem was crushed and she was looking for something to boost her confidence when she came across an advert for Miss British Beauty Curve.
“I was reading and researching it and I just took the plunge and put an application in. I thought it is now or never and it grew from there,” she said. “When I first entered, I knew very little about pageants.
“When I got there, I was really surprised to see how supportive and lovely all the girls were – I felt I was becoming part of a community, a sisterhood.”
She added: “Each person has their own story and I realised what an amazing thing to be involved in it was.
“It has been a really positive experience. I entered to improve
my self-confidence and selfesteem, but I now actually have a career in pageanting.
“My confidence is back and I am really proud to be a plus-sized, openly gay woman in pageanting.”
Ms Webber, who was also a judge in one of the world’s first LGBT+ pageants, said there are a lot of girls in pageants who still have fear that coming out could lead to titles being stripped away, or them being treated differently.
The situation is evolving, she said, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
“The last few years there has been a massive body image movement globally, and there are a lot more plus-sized models and queens out there now,” she said. “Rewind to ten years ago it would have been virtually non-existent.
“Growing up and in my early 20s, I felt that to be beautiful, accepted and desirable you had to fit into a mould of being tall and skinny – a very stereotyped view of what beauty is.
“The average clothes size of a woman in the UK is 16 to 18 but, in TV, we are looking at size 10 or below. It is not real and that causes all sorts of problems such as eating disorders or feeling that you are not good enough.
“The majority of the world does not look like that and it is about trying to redefine beauty as a whole – that we all deserve to feel beautiful in our own skin.”
The mum of two is now the editor-in-chief of World Class Queens of England magazine and is also a director of a new pageant that is open to all and wants to smash the beauty queen stereotypes, The Miss Paragon UK Pageant.
She added this new pageant is fully inclusive, welcoming women and girls from the age of four and has no restrictions. There is no upper age limit or restrictions on marital status, sexuality, children, height, weight and size.
The grand final of Miss Paragon UK Pageant will be held on Saturday, May 21, 2022 at The Basingstoke County Hotel & Spa.
Ms Webber said her focus as a director is to provide a fully inclusive system that promotes female empowerment, provide a “pageantry for all” platform and is particularly excited about providing a self defence class for all the girls.
Applications are now open for the Miss Paragon UK 2022 finals.
If you would like to represent your city at the Grand Final then visit the pageant’s Facebook page or email missparagonofficial@ gmail.com.
GAYNOR Coley, the chair of inland surf centre The Wave, near Bristol, has been shortlisted for a prestigious business award following her efforts in helping to secure the future of the sports complex.
Ms Coley has been nominated in the private/private equity backed category at the Non-Executive Director Awards, which recognise excellence from company board members who contribute daily to the success and growth of businesses and not-for-profit organisations across the UK.
The former managing director of the Eden Project in Cornwall is among 35 finalists, of which 13 are women, across seven categories.
The finalists were chosen from hundreds of nominations by a panel of judges headed by former CBI president Paul Dreshler.
The Wave, an inland surf destination in Easter Compton, South Gloucestershire, which allows surfers to ride artificial waves, opened to the public in November 2019, attracting £30million from external investors.
With the announcement of the first national lockdown in March
last year, the facility was forced to close until the start of August, before closing again in November and throughout the start of this year during the third national lockdown.
The Wave has now started taking bookings for its new onsite accommodation, called The Camp at The Wave. Opening in the spring, it includes 25 furnished tent-like cabins situated metres from the facility’s surf lake. This follows the announcement of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of the current lockdown restrictions.
Under the second stage of the plan, from as early as April 12 members of the same household will be permitted to go on domestic holidays away from home in selfcontained accommodation.
The Wave’s chief executive Craig Stoddart praised Ms Coley’s
“incredible” leadership, saying that a completion of a refinance deal in October 2020 “would not have been possible” without her insight and support.
Reacting to her nomination Ms Coley said: “I feel very honoured to have made it to the finals of these awards and as all board chairs know it is not one individual but the quality of the team that pulls companies through difficult times and we have certainly all faced difficult times this past year.
“I am delighted to be able to represent the amazing Wave team in the final and hopefully this will win many new converts to the invigorating experience of surfing so that we can continue to build on our strong start.”
Ms Coley was appointed to her role with The Wave in 2018 as the main construction deal for the complex was finalised.
The Wave’s chief executive Craig Stoddart added that Ms Coley had played an important role in helping to outline the social impact and sustainability of the project to all of the project’s stakeholders, including investors.
Mr Stoddart said: “The pandemic has been particularly challenging for us as a start-up business, which lost its first key spring/summer trading season.
“Gaynor has been very effective at bringing key stakeholders, including our investors, along the journey and ensuring that they see the benefits of all aspects of the vision and not just the financial objectives.”
The winners of the Non-Executive Director Awards will be announced on Thursday, March 25.