Lisa Van Dyck had never stepped foot on a stage, aside from her high school graduation, until Sunday when she won the Miss Saskatchewan pageant.

The 20-year-old woman who grew up in Prince Albert, but lives in Saskatoon, said she went into the pageant with a positive outlook.

“It's pretty empowering,” she said. “I’ve always been the type of person that you can do anything you set your mind to with the work.”

Van Dyck was accepted to compete in the pageant last year but couldn't afford the fees. This year she not only paid the fees she spent her lunch hour and time after work collecting bottles and cans for charity. She raised more than $2,000 in the five weeks leading up to the pageant for Cardiac Kids, which raises funds for children with congenital heart disease.

Van Dyck’s pageant platform is helping people with depression, which is something she dealt with in her teens. She recalls losing interest in friendships, hobbies and her grades slipping because she missed class. She said she wanted to go to school but couldn’t control her emotions. Van Dyck wants to share her story so others can learn from her experience.

“It was a very long road. Even in Grade 12 I was so depressed. I was suicidal actually. For years I wanted to die,” she told CTV News. “The only reason I didn’t is because someone told me, ‘It will get better. It’s OK. It will get better.’ And I believed them and it did. Now I would love to pass that light on.”

Van Dyck said since the pageant parents have reached out to her asking she speak with their teen aged children. She also plans to share her message in high schools with the goal of eventually speaking at her own high school in Prince Albert. She said that experience would be “amazing” because she had difficulty during her time in high school and almost didn’t graduate due to her depression.

“I knew she could come out of that hard spot in her life and I always saw that potential in her,” Van Dyck’s friend Mackayla Rediron said. “I know that she's going to do good things with her title.”

Van Dyck’s goal is to eventually open up a day care so she can help people start helping people when they’re kids. She will be representing Saskatchewan at the Miss Canada World pageant in Toronto in July.