A ROYAL fan has spoken of her wish to come face- to-face with the Duchess of Cambridge after working as a look-a-like for a year.

Nicola Maher, 22, from Wilpshire, kept journalists waiting outside the Lindo Wing of the St Mary’s Hospital in London on their toes by appearing alongside a Prince William lookalike shortly before the royal baby was born.

Since then Nicola, whose day job is a UK sales manager for Melissa Shoes, has been touring the country with a national newspaper as part of celebrations after the birth of Prince George.

The former Westholme School pupil said she was glad that she was able to turn the limelight off at the end of the day. She said: “A lot of people told me before I started doing this that I looked like Kate but I didn’t really think much of it.

“But after winning a competition to find the best undiscovered Kate Middleton lookalike things just took off and I’m being asked to do so many jobs.

“I was so nervous when I took part in the prank on July 12 alongside Tom Moore for The Sun and I wasn’t really expecting so much reaction from it. It was so weird having so many people asking for comments and taking my picture and for a short while we fooled a lot of people. I’ve never actually met Kate and I would absolutely love to do so and I hope that she would say that I look a bit like her.”

Nicola, who has previously worked as a life guard at Ribblesdale Swimming Pool, has been on a whirlwind tour of the UK since the birth which has taken in Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow.

She said: “One of the hardest things about it is the smiling all the time because you have to do it constantly for hours on end.

“I love the work that I do and it’s so much fun, especially when you get along with the Will look-a-like you are with for the event.

“It’s certainly fun being a celebrity for a few hours but I’m very glad that I’m able to turn all that off when I’m not working.”