The Rickmansworth winner of Miss Hertfordshire 2014 is urging young girls to "never give up" as she is crowned queen of the county in her third time competing in the pageant.

Charlotte White, of Ebury Road, won the competition finale on Sunday.

This year is the third time the 22-year-old has entered the beauty contest, and the "determined" approach she vowed to take before last weekend’s final appears to have paid off.

Miss White said: "I’m absolutely over the moon, it doesn’t feel real. These past few days have been manic and I worked really hard.

"In fact, everyone worked really hard and it shows as a whole how much we raised - the whole of Miss Hertfordshire raised more than £16,000, which I think could be a record.

"It was such a tough competition but I just didn’t give up and I’m proud I did it because each year I did it I learned something else about the competition. This was my third year, so third time lucky."

Miss White, who works on a design team for a Borehamwood construction company, entered the competition in 2009 and 2013, coming in third place. 

Commenting on what she thinks gave her that winning edge this year, Miss White said: "I raised a lot of money for the charity, Beauty With a Purpose, which the judges take very seriously.

"In total I raised about £3,000 and even took on a skydive in the hope of raising as much as possible.

"That was absolutely amazing. Although I was really scared and I had really bad anxiety before we did it, the moment I jumped out I just felt like I was falling. It was the most exhilarating experience of my life."

Miss White will now go through to compete in Miss England and represent that county on a national level in June.

She said: "For now, I’m just going to focus on Miss England as that’s only two months away and I don’t have much time to prepare.

"It’s a dream come true to make it through to Miss England and I’m glad I never gave up. If I had I wouldn’t be where I am today and I want to inspire young girls to do the same and stick with things and just keep trying."

She added: "I’m just really excited to have a chance to represent the county and I’m not going to let Hertfordshire down."