ENGLISH was Karen Southworth's worst subject at school, but now she is on the verge of becoming the UK's top wordsmith.

The 33-year-old, from Blackstone Road, Chorley, won through to the last 32 of the National Wordsmith Challenge and is hoping to go one better than last year when she reached the final 16.

Mother-of-one Karen was put down a class in English when she was at school, which makes it all the more extraordinary that she has become a word expert.

On Sunday (November 11) she will travel to Oxford to take part in the finals, hoping to scoop the first prize of £3,000. Contestants are given 22 letter tiles and have to make words of three, four, five or six letters against the clock.

The game is the brainchild of Winning Moves International (WMI) which recently launched the new Lancashire edition of Monopoly, and is jointly sponsored by Oxford English Dictionaries

Tom Liddell, managing director of WMI, said: "Karen is a leading contender for the top prize. We are delighted to learn her English has improved so much." Karen, a mortgage administrator in Preston, said her English improved after she started working in an office, but admitted to some last-minute jitters. "It's quite nerve-wracking," she said.