Poppy Girl Charlotte blooms in full glare of spotlight

"I was ridiculously nervous," she says. "Then I turned and looked at our producer John Stephens, he's like the dad of the group, and he had a huge grin on his face.

"Then all my nerves completely disappeared and all I wanted to do was my singing, it was amazing."

It has been a remarkable few weeks for Charlotte, whose father Wing Commander Paul Mellor is a padre stationed at RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton.

Since being announced as one of five military daughters who would record this year's official Poppy Appeal single in a band called Poppy Girls, her life has been a constant whirlwind of public appearances and performances.

The week before appearing in front of the Queen at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, she and her fellow Poppy Girls had met Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street, presenting him with a poppy.

And this week, the Poppy Girls release their first album, No Need To Say Goodbye, which will be distributed free to every British military unit deployed overseas.

More than 1,000 youngsters with parents in the armed forces auditioned for a place in the Poppy Girls, with Megan Adams, aged 10 from Stirling, Florence Ransom, also 10 from Petersfield in Hampshire, Alice Milburn, 13, from Portsmouth, and Bethany Davey, 15, from Dartford, Kent, making up the rest of the final five.

Charlotte's father, who recently returned from an extended period in the Gulf, has also served in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, and the teenager says she worries about him when he's away.

"He tries to put our minds at rest, saying he's going to a relatively safe place, but I do wonder whether he is just saying that so we will not worry," she says. "I think a lot about him, that he might be in danger or unhappy."

Charlotte, who is studying for A-levels in English, the classics, theatre studies and theology, says she found the visit to Downing Street particularly fascinating.

"There was a Cabinet meeting on at the time, and I'm interested in politics, and I was telling all the other girls who all the different people walking past were, and they were going 'who?'.

"David Cameron told us his daughter loved the record, which I thought was rather nice." She says it was an honour to perform at the Festival of Remembrance and record the Poppy Girls records, saying it was an opportunity to repay the debt owed to people like her father.

"It is our way of giving something back to the military, because they give so much to us." Father Paul says he was extremely proud of his daughter. "It is amazing to see just what the girls have managed to achieve in such a short space of time," he adds.

"It's better than the X Factor, really, and they're doing for all the right reasons, none of them are in it for just the fame. They all have their heads screwed on and their feet firmly on the ground."

The Poppy Appeal single is The Call (No Need to say Goodbye) and the new album includes covers of I'll Be There by The Jackson 5, Your Song by Elton John, and I'll Stand By You by The Pretenders, as well as the patriotic I Vow to Thee, My Country.

Charlotte says she has loved every minute of her time with the Poppy Girls, and would love a career as a singer. But she says it is more likely that she will be following in her father's footsteps, by seeking to become an Army medical officer.

"I love the other girls, we are just like one big family, and we will definitely keep in touch," she says.

"It is my dream to be in musical theatre, but realistically I hope to join the military. But I might still try to audition for a few West End roles."