An Aldergrove teen hoping to become the next Miss B.C. spent the first full week of May hammering away on a construction crew.

Alexandria Kayy, 18, took some time from her studies at UFV to work on the Extreme Home Repair crews rebuilding a local home for a family in need.

For Kayy, it’s not just a chance to do some volunteer work. She has seen the changes that a rebuilt house can make, because her family was the recipient three years ago.

“It changed everything,” she said. “The quality of your life just amplifies so much.”

At age 15, Kayy was living a very different life. Her health was not good, she says.

With severe asthma, exacerbated by mold in the home her family couldn’t afford to renovate, she made frequent trips to the hospital.

“It’s just so scary. You just don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.

A year before her family was chosen for the home renovation, her mother, Karen Weeks, walked into her room and saw Kayy’s lips had turned blue. The girl fainted moments later.

Within minutes, Weeks was driving her daughter to Langley Memorial while doing chest compressions, one-handed, at the same time.

“She’s a really good multi-tasker,” said Kayy, able to joke about it now.

In 2010, her family was the recipient of the home renovation, and since then, her breathing has improved tremendously.

Her hospital visits as a patient have been reduced to almost nil.

Instead, she’s hoping to be in hospitals as a health care professional, and is taking nursing courses at UFV, with the hope of eventually going to medical school, possibly becoming an anesthesiologist.

She’s also about to start competing to become Miss B.C.

After doing a little modeling in high school, Kayy started looking into pageants recently. Her aunt, a Miss Canada contestant in 1990, will be coaching her.

While she hopes to compete this summer when the pageant comes to Fort Langley, her goal is to win Miss Charity, by raising the most money for the Cops for Cancer bike ride.

Aldergrove’s small-town nature means personal connections between Kayy, the charity, and the AOK Extreme Home Repair are everywhere.

She knew Chris Sperger, the young boy who lost a four-year battle with cancer at the age of seven in 2007.

The Cops for Cancer Tour de Valley riders, many of them Langley and Surrey Mounties, became close with the family, as their mission is specifically to raise money and support for kids facing the disease.

The aftereffects of the Sperger family’s struggles led to problems with their home – which the AOK Extreme Home Repair team fixed in 2012’s rebuild.

That was just one of two families to receive home repair work that Kayy or her family members were close to.

She’s already planning some fundraisers for Cops for Cancer, talking to potential partners among Aldergrove businesses.

“I just want to get the community involved,” Kayy said.