BLACKBURN model Nicola Cox is every inch the picture of glamour -- but she's keen to stress she is not just a pretty face.

Nicola, of Wilpshire, has recently returned from modelling underwear in Holland and is now on a photo-shoot in London, where her agent is based.

But the 28-year-old is itching to get home and back to the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, where she is studying Criminology.

Nicola said: "It's a three-year course and from January I'm going to start a counselling course. I want a job that helps people."

The former Darwen Vale High School pupil, said she is more than qualified to listen to other people's problems.

As a teenager she readily admits to being part of a "party scene" which saw her get involved in drugs.

Now she feels she has turned her life around and wants to pass on her experience to others.

She said: "When I was into that scene, my vision was clouded, but now I'm out of it I can see the bigger picture. I want to help others do the same."