A former Ivanhoe College student has made it through as a regional finalist for the Royal Mail's 'Heroes' Stamp Design Competition.

Megan Harris is one of only 120 young people to reach this stage of the competition, from a staggering 606,049 entries across 7,479 schools.

Megan's design features a striking image of an NHS worker in PPE.

Her former art teacher Adrian Samuel said: "We wish Megan lots of luck as she progresses through the competition, we were incredibly impressed with her design."

To select the regional finalists, a network of judges, consisting of current and retired art teachers, evaluated each of the 606,049 entries.

Over a three-month period, the best entries, from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the nine regions of England were chosen from each age group.

All of the entries contributed to a Guinness World Record title for the largest postage stamp design competition.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "It is of great credit to the children of this country that, in world record breaking numbers, they picked up their paintbrushes, pens and paints and paid artistic tribute to the heroes of our coronavirus response.

"Their brilliant efforts represent the collective gratitude of the nation to everyone who went above and beyond during the pandemic.

"Congratulations to all those who have made it to the next round and thank you to everyone who has taken part."

From these 120 regional finalists, a special panel of judges will choose 24 winning regional designs, then whittle down the selection to eight winning images which will be issued as stamps in Spring of next year.