A TEENAGE tearaway has spoken about turning her life around after signing up to the sea cadets.

Chloe Hannan was described as a ‘Tasmanian Devil who regularly threw temper tantrums’ until she joined Accrington Sea Cadets, who have awarded her the prestigious President’s Award.

The 15-year-old Mount Carmel High School student, who lives with her family in Accrington, said joining a year ago was the best decision she has ever made.

She said: “I was finding school hard because I had problems with anger and I chose not to behave because I had no goals.

“But since I joined the sea cadets I want to join the Navy as an officer, and I have a reason to push myself.”

Chloe said she used to poke fun at a boy cadet living close to her, until she went herself.

The Year 11 pupil has just returned from a week-long stay at a naval course at HMS Raleigh in Plymouth, and has enjoyed sessions on fire station work, damage control, sea survival and camp craft.

She travels the country to go sailing and scuba diving, and said she has made hundreds of friends.

She said: “It’s the best thing I have ever done. It’s completely different to school. I went in there as my true self.

"They knew me as I am now and not as I used to be.”

Chloe’s proud head teacher at the school, in Wordsworth Road, Xavier Bowers, paid tribute to the student, who is now expected to do well in her GCSE exams this summer.

He said: “I used to describe Chloe as having temper tantrums. She was the Tasmanian Devil when she went off on one, but that has changed.

“Chloe had some difficulties at school and at home. She has been at the sea cadets for just under a year, and it has transformed her at school and in life.

“Her self-confidence has just massively improved. She is much calmer and reasonable.”