The story behind Lucy Bronze's meteoric rise as she bids to help England win the Women's World Cup; England defender Lucy Bronze hopes to be part of an England World Cup winning team - and her mum believes she can do it.
Byline: Hannah Graham
The profile of women's football is getting bigger and bigger - but sexist insults still need to be stamped out.
That's the view of the mum of Northumberland-born footballer Lucy Bronze, who is preparing to face Cameroon in England's next match at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Her mum Diane, who recently moved fromAlnwickto Sheffield, is avidly following every game.
Despite her daughter being a regular in the team, she says the level of attention the tournament is getting feels like something new.
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"It's being so watched now, whereas for the last one we were staying up til 3am watching and it felt like we were the only ones. Now everybody knows about it," Diane, 60, said.
"We were coming back from France and at border control the guy was saying 'are you watching the World Cup?'.
"Before it felt a bit like something we were pushing, but now there's so much recognition: I keep seeing adverts with her on now."
Although Diane believes this year's popularity is helped by France's timezone, which means matches can be viewed without staying up to the early hours of the morning, it also seems to fit with a change in attitude towards women's football.
It's unrecognisable from when Lucy was growing up, when playing professional football didn't seem like an option for a female player.
Lucy and her best friend - and now fellow England player - Lucy Staniforth were among the only girls heading down to the Alnwick football pitches to kick a ball around.
Born in Berwick in 1991 - the year of the first ever Women's World Cup - Lucy grew up on Holy Island before going to school at theDuchess' High School, in Alnwick.
But as a youngster she was forced to travel to Blyth to play the game she loved.
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Despite being the best player on her team at Alnwick Town, she wasn't allowed to play on the boys' team after the age of 12 due to then-FIDFA regulations, and Blyth had the only girls' team in reach.
Things couldn't be more different now: and it's partly thanks to Lucy.
After her daughter's performance in the 2015 World Cup in Canada, Diane learnt that Alnwick town had launched not only a girls' team but an adult women's team as well.
"They held an open day and I think they were expecting maybe 10 or 11 people to turn up, hopefully enough to make a team," she said.
"50 girls turned...
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