Hannah England's so grateful for Dame Kelly Holmes's help

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The fact she came away with a silver medal in the 1,500metres means her smile was as broad as ever as she boarded a flight to Canada this morning to prepare for bridesmaid duties for a university friend.

In 2008, England was third at the UK trials but was overlooked for the squad, a fate that replicated itself the following year.

"I still can't really believe I've won a world championship silver medal after being devastated by what happened before," she said. "For the Olympic selection, I was at home and saw online that I hadn't made the squad. I got no phone call. And then for Berlin, I got a text from my mum while I was at an athletics meeting to say I hadn't made it.

"Both were gutting but I never thought about quitting. After those setbacks, it makes what happened in Daegu all the more satisfying."

England is perhaps the ultimate success story of the On Camp with Kelly scheme and is still mentored by two-time Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes, who was in regular contact last week.

"Looking back at those low points, it was so helpful having Kelly as I know that, whatever I'd been through, she'd been through worse in her career and come out the other side," added England.

"She has been great. She rang me at the holding camp in Ulsan and I wrote down everything she said and kept on reading it through.

"When I checked my phone after the semi-finals, when I'd run a terrible race, I saw Kelly's name in my inbox and I thought 'oh no, she's going to tell me off'. But she was just saying, 'Go out and run your race in the final'."

England still cannot quite believe the outcome of the race. "I'm so happy to have the life I have and it makes it cooler now to be one of the best in the world," she said.

Aviva has been a proud supporter of British athletes since 1999 and funded the Aviva GB&NI Team's preparation camp in Ulsan, Korea ahead of the World Championships. To find out more, go to aviva.co.uk/athletics or follow us on Twitter @AvivaAthletics.