Thursday May 13, 2010 www.thestar.com.my

Mother-of-two bags three awards in pageant

IT WAS truly an exciting moment for Lee Lee Fung, when she beat 11 other finalists to be crowned the winner of “Tomei’s My Lovely Mum 2010” Beauty Pageant at the Mines Shopping Centre recently.

Lee, a mother of two, said that she entered the competition to enhance her level of confidence.

Originally from Perak, the 31-year-old accounts executive at OCMerit Plastic Sdn Bhd also won two other subsidiary titles — “Most Radiant Mum” and “Most Sunny Mum”.

“I never expected to win, I want to show that a woman can still be outstanding in whatever she does despite being a mum,” said Lee who took home RM25,000 worth of prizes.

First runner-up, Lee Tieng Tieng 37, was overjoyed when her four children celebrated with her at the end of the ceremony.

Winning mums: Lee Lee Fung (centre) flanked by first runner-up Lee Tieng Tieng (left) and Joan Kwok.

“I feel thrilled and delighted to be able enter this competition. I see it as another milestone and you can still achieve much in life,” said the music teacher from Cheras.

Her husband Peter Tang, was in the audience with their children when his wife was announced the first runner-up.

“I was nervous and excited at the same time. When they announced her name, I was relieved.” said Tang.

The second runner-up was Joan Kwok, while the “Most Beautiful Skin Mum” award was won by Christine Cheng.

Both first and second runners-up took home prizes worth RM16,000 and RM9,000 respectively.

Consolation prizes of RM1,500 were also given to the other finalists.

This is the third staging of Tomei’s My Lovely Mum Beauty Pageant. Organised by The Mines, the pageant was open to all Malaysian mothers.

As many as 200 hopefuls registered for the competition and only 30 were short-listed for the semi-finals.

The 12 finalists aged between 22 and 39 had to go through several stages like self introduction, catwalk and question and answer before being judged based on beauty (40%), poise (20%), eloquence (20%) and overall presence (20%).

Audience at the 90-minute final were entertained by dance performances by the BLS Kids and World Harmonica Ensemble champions who performed classic songs like ABBA’s Dancing Queen and the current hitBad Romance by Lady Ga Ga.

The panel of judges were Tomei Consolidated Berhad senior manager advertising & promotion Christine Lim; celebrity model, Amber Chia; CapitaMalls Asia (Malaysia) general manager Yong Kei Seng; Her Worldmagazine deputy editor Sakinah Aljunid; and last year’s “My Lovely Mum” winner Nordaliya Samsudin.

The prestigious event was also supported by the Breast Cancer Welfare Association.