Ten students from across the province are being acknowledged by Premier Brain Pallister for their contributions to healthy living in their communities.

Two out of the ten students chosen to receive the Healthy Living Award are from South Central Manitoba; Brooklyn Platt from Carman Collegiate and Jessica Edel from Morris School.

The Premier's Healthy Living Award for youth recognizes the achievements of young Manitobans who are positive role models for other youth by promoting active and healthy lifestyles. Recipients were selected based on their work in at least one of five categories - active living, healthy eating, healthy sexuality, mental health, safety and injury prevention, and substance abuse and addictions reduction.

Award Recipients receive a $500 bursary and commemorative medal at a public ceremony at The Manitoba Legislature Building.

Edel said healthy eating was a big part of her job while running the school canteen.

"So my canteen work was about the healthy eating aspect. For active living I run kids camps and encourage kids to do more physical activities. I am also involved in a variety of sports and we have a new program in school that I am a big part of called TADD, which stands for (Teens Against Destructive Decisions). TADD helps bring awareness to dangerous decisions about things like drugs or alcohol,"

Edel feels she is a leader in her community and feels it's her obligation as a Manitoba youth to be a positive role model for younger ones, noting that she has seen how younger kids often look up to her and other grade twelve students and what they do has a big impact on others.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn Platt explained that her struggle with mental health is what drove her to apply for the scholarship, noting she was shocked to find out she was graduating let alone winning an award.

"My main focus was mental health and ending the stigma around mental health to let people know they are not alone, so that is what I wrote about. Earlier this year I did a speech on mental health in front of my school and made a Facebook video. The video blew up right away with over 18,000 views, I had so many messages from my peers and others that were really impacted by my video."

Platt has battled depression for the past two years in which she endured feelings of constant sadness and had little energy.

"In November 2015 I opened up to my mom and told her something is not right, I'm not feeling like myself and I was in a really low place. So, me and my mom went to see

Brooklyn Platta professional and I got on some medication and I hoped that things would start looking up from there."

However, it wasn't going to be that easy, as Brooklyn continued to feel depressed with no change in her mental disposition.

"I was on medication for a couple of months and things were still not changing and I was thinking about how my medication wasn't working, my counselling wasn't working, I still wasn't myself, I didn't like myself ... and that's the first time I attempted to take my life. That was really hard, obviously, for my family and me and everybody. I just got so low and my mind just took over and unfortunately mental illness plays games with you, so it just made me feel like nobody cared. That's why I went and did that."

A change in high schools from Winnipeg back to Carman Collegiate in July 2016 didn't seem to be helping either, so she checked into a mental health centre for a second time where she received more counselling and new medication.

"I had a really rough first semester until about January of this year and then things started to really get better for me and now I'm here and I'm graduating, which I never thought would happen. I'm lucky to even be here right now. I'm lucky that I had the treatment centre in Brandon to go to, I'm lucky that I have a new medication, and awesome family and friends to support me, because without them I definitely would not be here."

Platt plans to move on to Assiniboine Community College in the fall and then to University to become a psychologist to help as many people as she can.