POP fan Katie Storey is reaching for the stars after winning a competition to watch the sparkling Christmas lights in Oxford Street being switched on by some of her pop idols.

Eleven-year-old Katie is travelling to London with her family on Monday for an all-expenses paid prize to meet S Club 7, and to watch the lights switch-on ceremony.

Last Saturday, Danny from another of her favourite bands, Hear'Say, announced on ITV's Saturday morning show Dig It that Katie had won the prize, which also includes a £1,000 spending spree in a John Lewis department store, and a hotel stay.

The week previously she had entered a competition to guess the number of light-bulbs used to light up Oxford Street.

The Wigginton schoolgirl said: "I get up at 7.30am every Saturday to watch the programme, and I enter the competitions every week - I'm so excited - I like all of S Club 7."

Katie is going along with her mum, Sue, dad, Neil, and 13-year-old brother, Ben - who are all just as excited.

Although she does not yet know what she is going to spend the money on, she has her eye on a personal CD player. Her dad's efforts to persuade her to buy a computer have fallen on deaf ears.

And there ain't no party like an S Club party, because after the lights ceremony, the family has been invited along to a VIP party where they can mingle with the stars and fill up their autograph books.

Sue said: "We are all really looking forward to it. None of us have ever seen the Christmas lights in Oxford Street before, so it will be a real treat."

Updated: 10:40 Saturday, November 17, 2001