'I owe my life to pageants' says newly-crowned Miss Derbyshire on her bounce back from rock bottom

She won the title at her second attempt and is now through to the final of Miss Great Britain, which takes place in October.

Lucy, who works full-time for Virgin Atlantic as cabin crew, said of her success: “It’s exciting, amazing and a bit surreal. When I entered last year I was a completely different person. I'd gone through a terrible time mental health-wise, it was really bad due to a break-up, and I was signed off work flying for three months. I thought the pageant might be an opportunity to pick my confidence back up last year and it did.

"I entered the pageant because I’d won the Nottinghamshire Racecourse Style Awards in 2025. The Miss GB team were out scouting and when they presented me with my award, they said ‘please apply’. I only had three weeks to prepare for the pageant last year and I went in and did it for the experience. I didn’t place and I didn’t win any of the side awards.

"This year I entered because I wanted to show that I’d picked myself up from rock bottom mentally and physically. Last year I was around 15.8st and I’m now just under 11st. I try to liken it to I’ve shrunk but grown in other ways.

"Without sounding cheesy, I owe so much to that pageant for last year and for this year. I owe my life to them.”

Lucy has worked hard to get herself back into a happy place both physically and mentally, with help from her personal trainer Benny James PT who owns J7 Fitness in Leicester. Lucy said: “He was a massive part of my weight loss journey and picking myself up. It was a no-brainer that he was going to sponsor me for the pageant.”

The last year has been an emotional one for Lucy, 26, who lives in Huthwaite. She lost her grandfather Terry Heydon, who grew up in Newton and was a singer with the Newtones during the Sixties. “We had his funeral a month before the final,” said Lucy. Part of her pageant journey involved charity fundraising at John Eastwood Hospice where Lucy was given amazing support by the staff as she talked about her grandad’s end of life care. Lucy made her debut as Cinderella at the hospice’s summer fair.

She has been diagnosed with ADHD and aims to help others in a similar situation through a charity she is launching called Seen, Heard, Supported. Lucy said: “The diagnosis helped me on my mental health journey, it helped me understand myself and how I could talk to others. I want to give that back to others who felt that they were different for so many years. It’s a campaign I want to set up on an a national scale. I want to go into schools and community groups with workshops on tactics and how non-neurodiverse individuals can communicate with those with neurodiversity so it minimises things like meltdowns, feeling like they aren’t seen or understood.”

Lucy has also launched a beauty treatment enterprise as a sideline when she’s not jetting off around the world. She is qualified in brow lamination and lash lift and is working towards qualifications in extensions. She runs Lucere Beauty from a room in a friend’s house in Tibshelf.

Lucy owns horses of which her pride and joy is Baxter, a 26-year-old Welsh section D male which she has had for 11 years.

Her reign as Miss Derbyshire will take her into the orbit of 70 title holders competing to be crowned Miss Great Britain over the next couple of months. The contenders will meet for the first time at Ringwood Hall in Brimington in September when there will be a masterclass in catwalk and stage presentation.

A month later they will be reunited at the Miss Great Britain final in Leicester on October 16. Lucy said: “I’m looking forward to experiencing it. I’m going to go and enjoy it – and do as well as I possibly can.”

Lucy was crowned Miss Derbyshire by Daisy Parker, who won the title in 2025, at The Holiday Inn, Mansfield-Alfreton. The event also featured the crowning of Charlotte Lister as the first Ms Nottinghamshire and Jordan Cooper as Miss Nottinghamshire. Sponsors were Team Prom, FlowerLife, MC Productions, ProMeds Clinic, Oh.Hel Makeup Artist, The Hangar Creative Studios, Capture the Crown and the Holiday Inn, Mansfield-Alfreton.

Miss Great Britain is now in its 81st year. It started life as a bathing beauty queen competition organised by seaside resorts in the 50s and 60s. Televised finals and big cash prizes were introduced in the 60s and 70s; the last final to be broadcast on television was in the early 80s. Nowadays, the Miss GB competition has evolved into much more than a beauty pageant, with judges looking for a woman that embodies strength, intelligence, ambition, integrity and compassion.