A STUDENT from a school in Thornton Heath has drawn on the horrific experience of growing up in war-torn Sierra Leone to win a prize at a public speaking competition.

Mayward Martindale's moving speech called "The Cruelty of War" saw her claim third place in the Speak Out Challenge.

The 15-year-old, who attends Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College, won a trophy and a cheque for £150 after making a big impression on a 600-strong audience with her three-minute speech.

"I was really nervous before I spoke so to calm myself down me and another girl did star jumps behind the stage," Mayward said.

"I'm not sure why, but it helped me speak about a difficult subject.

"My speech was about war and how cruel it is, about how children were forced to become soldiers and how badly people were treated."

Growing up in Sierra Leone, Mayward explained, was "very frightening".

"People were being shot at all time," she said.

"The rebels were really heartless. They hacked off people's limbs, women were raped and they killed people for no reason.

"They targeted the elderly and young people especially, so my family had to go into hiding."

Mayward's family escaped into Guinea, and when they returned to Sierra Leone after the fighting had stopped, it was a very different place.

"It was really horrible," the teenager recalled.

"Everything was destroyed and many people were homeless. I remember the streets were really dirty. I couldn't believe it was the same place.

"There was rubble all over the place and bodies everywhere. It smelt really horrible. There was no way we could stay there."

So Mayward and her parents moved to Gambia, a world away from the civil war which had torn up her home country.

From there, she moved to Britain when she was six and now travels back to see her mother and grandparents in Sierra Leone.