A MODEL may leave his Accrington roots behind for a career on the catwalks of Cairo.

Nadeem Ahmed, of Lister Street, returned this week from a whistle-stop fortnight of interviews and photo-shoots for leading fashion magazines in the Egyptian capital.

Nadeem, 27, said the editors of Enigma and Cleo, the Egyptian equivalents of Vogue, would contact him soon about returning to Cairo on a permanent basis.

"They said I had a very versatile look," he said. "It would be a dream come true for me because Egypt is such a beautiful place."

His first big break in modelling came in 1996 when he won a competition to appear on the front cover of Springboard lifestyle magazine.

During the last two years Nadeem has been the face of an anti-racism campaign poster by Leicestershire Constabulary and was part of the first British Asian couple ever to model in the mainstream when he featured on an advert for ITV Digital.

Nadeem, an art graduate from the Salford Design Centre, juggles his modelling with a budding career in the media.

He is on a training course at a local radio station and hopes to become a TV presenter, having already interviewed a top Indian supermodel for The Clothes Show.

"I've worked hard and I'm one of those people who is living proof that you can do anything you put your mind to," he said. "You don't get anything in life unless you really push yourself."