Fresh-faced, blue-eyed and as natural as a daisy in a rain-soaked meadow, Katie Richmond was an instant hit with Sun readers.

From the moment her mother sneakily submitted a snap of the Cheshire lass to Britain's biggest newspaper a career was set in motion.

Page 3's legendary photographer Beverley Goodway immediately invited her to London for a shoot and within a week she had made her debut on Page 3.

The combination of fresh-faced beauty, a fantastic body and a bosom which should be listed as one of the wonders of the modern world were a heady combination.

Katie had studied to train show ponies, a passion which began in childhood, and she had also completed a beautician's course.

But as the modelling offers flooded in there was little time for anything else.

She was voted third in The Sun's Page 3 Girl for the Millennium poll, turned down a fortune (£250,000 to be precise) to become Playboy's Playmate of the Millennium.

And then she retired, informing a disappointed public that her Page 3 days were over and put her time into other projects.

She had set her sights on television, and managed to secure a couple of TV programmes; Katie Richmond's VPL and Katie's Crazy About Cars, the latter on Men and Motors, while also designing a range of swimwear with her younger sister Ginene.

A self-proclaimed tomboy, Katie seems to have perfected kickboxing (she has studied it since she was 15), and was allegedly been in a scrap with Lisa Bangert while the two were shooting a video for pop singer Buster Bloodvessel's single, "Stop Messing."

Now that is something we would have liked to have seen.