How Mrs. Universe Dubai overcame spine injury to win title

Gulf News

Fall in spa cast doubt on Pamela Serena’s participation, but she fought on till the end.  Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3M7mnQx  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Dubai #MrsUniverse

Transcript

00:00I was sick in bed, bedridden, and I didn't think I could even walk in hills, let alone ramp.

00:06But you have to have hope inside, and you have to have determination.

00:10And when you have that, I think you can achieve anything. The world is your oyster.

00:17Hello, everyone. Today's a really special day. We are sitting here with Mrs. Universe Dubai,

00:22Pamela. And well, she's going to talk about her win and how she achieved it.

00:29Yes, hello. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure. When I participated in this

00:35contest, it was supposed to be last year in November. And I had a fall. I slipped in the

00:42steam room and I fractured my spine. So I thought, oh, my God, I'm not going to be able to do this

00:46contest. And it's going to go ahead and I can't do it. The hospital told me I was very lucky that

00:52I fractured my T6. They told me anything lower, you could have ended up in a wheelchair. And

00:56anything higher, you could have been brain damaged. So I was like, in bed, written bed

01:02rested for like almost so many months. Lucky for me, the contest actually because of COVID

01:07restrictions on the rules, the contest got postponed till next year, February. So I was

01:12able to get physiotherapy and I was able to get better and start walking and wearing heels again.

01:18And I and here I am today and to the end to the pageant and I and I won and I was just so shocked.

01:23I mean, it was just a dream come true. I believe like everything happens for a reason and the

01:29universe was on my side because had it had it had been last year, I wouldn't be sitting here today.

01:34It also requires determination. And, you know, the passion for what you like doing

01:40to to get back on your feet and be there. So tell us about that.

01:44Yes, I mean, it's it's hard work. People think beauty pageants are easy, you know,

01:49you just look pretty and and that's it. But it's not. It's a lot of hard work that goes into it.

01:53One of the things that we had to do was make a national costume. So we had to represent

01:59a country or a city. So I decided to go with Dubai as my national costume.

02:04And then I was thinking, I want to be like, what can I do to what kind of costume do I want?

02:09And I had this, you know, great team with me, Aaron, which obviously was there with me. And

02:15we designed this costume to kind of go with the Expo because we thought, OK, Dubai is here,

02:19the Expo 2020. What can we do? And so inspired by the Expo, we use the colors of the logo,

02:25the gold and the white. And we made this beautiful, beautiful Abaya gown with a hood.

02:32We had this beautiful gold mask, which was the same colors and the same kind of

02:37pieces that were used in the logo for the Expo 2020. So representing that and inspired by that,

02:43we made this costume. And when I walked down, I didn't expect it. So I kind of lifted my

02:48hood up. I had this gold, I had this gold mask on and everyone started cheering.

02:56Like it was just amazing. And everyone was in the crowd. They just loved it.

03:00Any message for people who want to get into beauty pageants? And obviously,

03:05it's not just about the beauty. It's about being beautiful inside out. It is also about,

03:11you know, being intelligent, having a passion. I want to say that never, ever give up. I mean,

03:16everyone, you know, there's always something there for everyone. But for me, again, as I said,

03:22I was sick in bed, bedridden, and I didn't think I would, you know, I could even walk in hills or

03:27let alone ramp. But, you know, you have to have hope inside and you have to have determination.

03:32And when you have that, I think you can achieve anything. The world is your oyster.

03:36Absolutely. On that very special note, it's a wrap from us. Thank you so much,

03:41Pamela, for talking to us. Thank you so much. Good luck. More accolades for you

03:46in your journey ahead. And this is Anjana Kumar for Gulf News.

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