HAYLEY OWEN grew up dreaming of becoming an undertaker. It sounds like an unusual choice for young girl to make, let alone pursue as an adult.

But Hayley, now aged 28, is one of the country’s youngest female undertakers and runs her own funeral director’s business in York.

And she is not alone. Hayley says as many women as men now work in the industry, adding it can be comforting for bereaved families to know a woman is looking after a female relative who has died.

Hayley is breaking new ground again in becoming chairwoman of the Yorkshire division of the British Institute of Embalmers. We wish her well.