Bradford ace Rachel Bell received a Christmas card with a difference when she earned her full European playing privileges for the 2011 season.

Bell finished ninth at the final qualifying school in La Manga, the highest-ranked UK player, to secure her place on the Ladies Tour circuit next year.

She shot scores of 75, 72, 76, 72 and a closing three-under-par 70 to top a great year, the 28-year-old having won her first professional tournament in May at the Madrid Masters on the Spanish Banesto Tour.

Bell first earned a playing card for the Ladies European Tour in 2008 but her debut season was cruelly cut short when she contracted glandular fever and she admits it has been a long road back to full fitness.

“Getting ill two years ago was pure bad luck but it benefited me in so many other ways,” she said.

“It’s a bit of cliche to talk about the journey being more important than the destination but my journey has been a real adventure.

“I’ve worked really hard with my coach David Llewellyn over the last 12 months to get my game in good shape, so earning my card has been a real team effort and a very welcome Christmas present for all of us.”

Bell, whose mother died on Northcliffe Golf Course in Shipley after being struck by lightning when she was just five months old, said her preparations for the qualifying tournament had been far from ideal.

She said: “The irony was that the weather was so bad at home in the two weeks before Q School that I didn’t play at all. I just went to the driving range and practised putting on a putting mat in the lounge!

“But when I got out to Spain, the weather at La Manga was only four degrees for most of the tournament and it was pretty windy.”

Bell, who currently lives in Driffield, has been overwhelmed by the number of texts and e-mails she has received since qualifying.

“While I was out there playing I was in a bubble all week but as soon as I came off the course after shooting three under in my last round, my mobile phone went crazy,” she said.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet how many people were following my scores live online over in the States, across Europe and at home.”

Bell must now decide if she will kick-off her season in February in Australia or wait until the first European event in Morocco at the end of March.