A teenager has returned from an emotional trip to the battlefields and graveyards of France and Belgium.
Karen Street, of Pinner View, won the life-changing trip after entering a national competition to commemorate Armistice Day.
The Sacred Heart School pupil said: "It was interesting to see the British, French and German gravestones as they were all different.
"We went to about 16 cemeteries; some of them were small in the middle of fields and others had thousands of graves."
The 14-year-old beat stiff competition to win a place after writing a piece about the Wealdstone war memorial and Harrow Weald Cemetery for the Away to Remember competition run by the Imperial War Museum.
The student travelled with 26 young people to Ypres Salient, Arras and the Somme to discover more about what life was like on the frontline.
The trip was especially poignant for the schoolgirl, who visited the battlefield where her great-grandfather fought during the First World War. She said: "I asked the guide to take a detour so we could see the battlefields where my great-grand-father fought in the Somme.
"When we went to see the trenches it was flooded and some of the group were complaining, but our guide said stop complaining, it could be much worse.
"It took us half an hour to get up the hill, but would have taken soldiers two days - with Germans waiting for them at the top."
The competition, which was run in association with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, gave young people a chance to represent their local communities on the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day.
The group also went to a remembrance Sunday service at the Menin Gate, in Ypres Salient, Belgium.
Miss Street said: "It is so different in France; they have a national holiday and all the children are involved.
"I am going to give a presentation to my school.
"I'm glad I went. All children who study the war should go and see it."
