A beauty queen who suffered six heart attacks before she was 18 is determined to stop the heart palpitations when she is crowned Miss America on Sunday.
Miss District of Colombia Jude Mabone was a super-fit 16-year-old running a ten-mile distance when she was first attacked in July 2012.
She recognized the symptoms from school health classes and went to the nearest hospital, where doctors were baffled by her condition.
They still don’t know if it was hormones or the environment that caused a wave of new attacks over the next two years, but she plans to use her profile to save lives.
“This is the most indiscriminate disease in the US, and it is also the disease that kills the most people,” she said.
Beauty queen Jude Mabone has already raised thousands of dollars for heart disease research
The 28-year-old put beauty pageants on her bucket list as a teenager because she feared it would shorten her life
After seven attempts, she finally won the title of Miss DC last year
“That’s why a big part of my participation in the Miss America platform was to destigmatize it.”
Mabone’s series of heart attacks turned her from a competitive track runner into a near-recluse, spending every other week in hospital.
But it also spurred her to create a bucket list of ambitions for a life she feared would be a very short one, and on that list was beauty pageants.
She had entered for Miss DC seven times in 2021, when she turned 26, and no longer qualified.
But a change in the organization’s management saw the age limit raised and last year she triumphed by qualifying for Sunday’s Miss America pageant.
It also brought a change of sponsors and a partnership with the American Heart Association as a national philanthropy.
Heart disease was already in the public consciousness when 24-year-old NFL star Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a high-profile game last year.
“I thought, ‘All these things are aligning.’ I have to humble myself, overcome my pride and try this again,” Maboné said CNN.
The 28-year-old says she is fitter than ever and is taking beta blockers to manage her condition
The California-born beauty queen recognized her symptoms during health classes at school
“A big part of my participation in the Miss America platform was to destigmatize this,” she said
“As Miss DC, I have been able to reach thousands of people in DC and even beyond,” she said
“I’m actually in better physical and heart condition than I was before my heart attack because you have to work so hard to overcome it,” she said
“Because it finally felt like the issue I’d been talking about for 10 years was finally an issue that people were taking seriously.”
Mabone was one of four children raised by a single mother in California who served in the Navy and drove her children fast.
“My mother had a rule from the time we were in fifth grade until the time we graduated from high school: To live in her house, we had to play a sport, play an instrument, learn a second language, join joining a club, taking leadership activities and taking voice lessons,” she said.
Mabone took up exercise, but during a run in July 2012, she experienced chest pain, heavy sweating, difficulty breathing, dizziness, nausea and pain in her left shoulder.
Mabone’s Navy mother drove her children hard
Maboné recognized the symptoms from the lesson, but had difficulty believing she was having a heart attack and did not go to the hospital.
“Looking back now, I would have stayed put and let someone run somewhere nearby to call 911,” she said.
“Calling 911 is always the first thing to do when someone is experiencing symptoms and I am grateful to be equipped with that information and in a position to share with others what to do in a cardiac emergency.”
Medical tests continued to come back normal and she tried to hide her condition from friends and classmates as she suffered a series of new seizures over the next two years, all while running.
“My doctor who diagnosed me told me that she believes this type of condition is hormonal or environmental, but we can’t pinpoint where it comes from because it’s not genetic,” she said.
“It’s something I might grow out of someday, or I might not. It’s something that could get worse. It’s very unclear.’
But she has learned to live with her condition and manage it with beta blockers as she gets fit again.
“I’m actually in better physical and heart shape than I was before my heart attacks because you have to work so hard to overcome it,” she said.
She has already raised thousands of dollars for research into a condition that affects 121.5 million Americans and is clear about what is needed to save more lives, including greater availability of screenings and more defibrillators in schools.
“As Miss DC, I have been able to reach thousands of people in DC and even beyond,” she said.
“As Miss America, those thousands turn into millions.
“I just see an opportunity here to really tangibly change the way this country looks at this disease in a way that I don’t necessarily think I would get without the Miss America platform.”
“And through the partnership with the American Heart Association, there will be so many opportunities to leverage what they do and what I do to create tangible change.”
The DC City Council has already stood up and taken note of the new cardiac emergency plan legislation coming up for a vote.
“It felt like the issue I’d been talking about for 10 years was finally an issue that people were taking seriously,” she said
“For me, Miss America is someone who also has a purpose and is driven and committed to making the US better in some way. In my mind, it’s heart health, which I think is exactly what we need right now,” she said
“I just see an opportunity here to really, tangibly change the way this country looks at this disease in a way that I don’t necessarily think I would get without the Miss America platform.”
“I think the fact that these things are not federally mandated is a problem,” Maboné said.
‘Heart disease kills more people than cancer, but receives a very small percentage of funding.
“To me, Miss America is someone who also has a purpose and is driven and committed to improving the US in some way.
“In my mind, it’s heart health, which I think is exactly what we need right now.”