Life in fast lane for Christine

Because the mother-of-one, who rides around on her beloved Harley Davidson motorbike, spends most of the week arranging funerals at Farmer and Son in Wordsley.

"My job is very special to me because I'm working with the community that I love," says Christine who grew up in Wordsley.

"My concerns are always for the family because I think it could be me that is grieving for a relative or friend that has died.

"We often have unusual requests for funerals. We have requests for mobile phones to go into the coffin because the family want to believe there is still that connection.

"I need to be challenged all the time because that is my nature, so when a friend asked me to lead the cortege one day I was pleased to do it.

"My normal role is office manager and funeral arranger but if someone does want a woman to do the job then I feel privileged that I have been allowed to do it."

Christine was the eldest girl in a family of four boys and three girls and admits she was a rebellious pupil at Lawnswood Road School.

At the first opportunity she got a job at Royal Wordsley Knitwear factory, but a chance meeting turned Christine's life around.

"One day when I was 15 I was walking past Richardson Hall with my friend Mary when we spotted a man doing some decorating," says Christine.

"It was Jim Charles, who I went on to marry, and he spoke to us about some exercise classes he was doing at Wordsley Community Centre.

"I was a tomboy and I thought doing some weight-training would make me tough so I could beat up the boys – but it had the opposite effect.

"There were some glamourous girls who entered competitions and they used to come in wearing make-up and high-heels.

"They are the kind of girls I used to look up to and admire but I didn't know what I had to do to look like them.

"But when I started going to the gym they nurtured me and when I first went into a competition – Mecca Miss England – I was 15 but signed in as 18.

"My instructor had his eyes closed because he was sure I was going to mess it up but he was stunned when I walked onto stage with the posture and know-how of some of his top girls. I was chuffed when I came third."

Christine went on to enter several other competitions and became Junior Miss West Midlands, was awarded second place in Junior Miss Britain and was placed fifth, fourth, third and second in the Miss Britain contest.

In 1972 she won the Miss Universe Bikini and she went on to be the first girl to win the Britain in a Bikini competition and was also crowned Britain's Queen of Beauty. She says: "When I won Miss Universe in 1974 I shared a stage with Arnold Schwarzenegger and he was bit of an idol for me.

"When he appeared in The Terminator films on the Fat Boy motorbike I knew I just had to have one.

"I had a friend who took me out on his Harley Davidson and when I lost this friendship I really missed going out on the bike.

"So I started having lessons. I wasn't a natural by any means and the first time I tried it I mounted a wall, but I just picked myself up, brushed myself off and got back on the bike again. Last year I joined other bikers – including singer Suzy Quatro – on a tour around Austria and then I went to a bike rally in Ireland."

Christine is now member secretary of the Wulfruna Chapter of Harley Davidsons in Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton and her partner Keith Kirton is secretary of the group.

"My daughter, Jane, who is 28, grounded me when I had a bike accident," says Christine.

She said it should be the other way around with me worried about her going out on a motorbike. However, I know that she is proud of me. I turned 60 a few weeks ago but I'm not going to slow down – I love life in the fast lane."