WHEN a budding writer dashed off a few lines for a national writing competition she promptly forgot all about it.
So when the letter dropped on the mat at her Chester-le-Street home saying she had beaten off competition from 5,000 other entrants to win the right to have her work published, 14-year-old Helen Hammond could not believe it.
"We did it for a school project so I had forgotten about it," she said.
"It was really hard because we only had 100 words, but I'm just really pleased and I'm looking forward to it coming out."
Helen's will be one of 100 stories published in a book called 2001- A Space Oddity. All the stories are about outer space.
The competition was organised by stationers Staples.Net proceeds from the sale of the £1 book will go to ChildLine, The Royal School for the Blind, The National Autistic Society and Winston's Wish.
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