PRESTON bank cashier Karen Noblet has taken her performance in front of a 14 million television audience in her stride.

Karen, of Walton-le-Dale, achieved fifth place and 106,000 votes in ITV's prestigious Stars In Their Eyes final, hosted by Matthew Kelly.

The NatWest cashier wowed the audience with her performance as Jacqueline Abbott, from The Beautiful South.

She sang the hit Rotterdam to a live audience.

Karen said: "We were rehearsing for the show for four days and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"I never expected to make it through my heat into the final, so having the extra chance to perform was amazing."

Karen is now trying to get to grips with normal life again.

She added: "Everyone keeps talking about it. People held parties when I was on. I hope they voted for me!

"It has really given me the taste for singing and hopefully I'll be able to do some more in the future."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.