(CNN) -- At 16, Jude Maboné often found herself pondering if she'd wake up the next day. She had just experienced her first heart attack and would confront five more before her 18th birthday, catalyzing her creation of a bucket list that included an inroad into the glamour world (inspired by the movie "Miss Congeniality," Maboné told CNN).
While her friends enjoyed high school, Maboné was alternating weeks in hospital. Despite Maboné's exterior not fitting the stereotypical mold of a heart disease patient, she had always done everything right: no family history of similar ailments, a healthy diet, stress control, and exercise. In fact, all her heart attacks occurred while running. Battling her embarrassment over a condition people commonly associate with old age and poor lifestyle choices, she opted for secrecy and never shared her ordeal with peers and teachers.
But now, at 28, Maboné has emerged into the spotlight. As the 2023 winner of the Miss District of Columbia pageant and participant in this year’s Miss America, which takes place on January 14 and hasn't hailed a Miss District of Columbia as the national title holder in 80 years, she's speaking up.
"This is the most indiscriminate disease in America—the one claiming the most lives," stated Maboné. "That’s why a significant reason for me employing the Miss America platform was to remove its stigma."
She’s utilizing her title to expand her advocacy for proactive heart health and emergency preparedness, including close collaboration with the American Heart Association and other organizations to drive preventative heart health awareness, facilitate community screening tests, and implement plans for using Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in schools. AEDs are "portable life-saving devices, designed to treat individuals who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest" by providing electric shocks to restore normal heart rhythm, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"Most people do not survive a heart attack; I survived six," explains Maboné. "It made me realize the purpose at hand, and the responsibility I have to help others fare better than I did."
A tale of perseverance
Born in Southern California in 1995, Maboné was one of four children raised by her single mother who served in the Navy.
"My mother had a rule since we were in fifth grade until we graduated high school: to live in her house, we had to play a sport, learn a musical instrument, acquire a second language, join a club, undertake a leadership activity, and take singing classes," she elucidated. (Her talent for the pageant is Italian opera).
Competitive athletics and distance running were Maboné's sports of choice, which would ultimately expose her cardiac problems. Halfway through a 10-kilometer race on July 11, 2012, chest pains gradually escalated into profuse sweating, breathlessness, dizziness, nausea, and left-shoulder pain.
Having learned in her health class that these were indicators of an imminent heart attack, Maboné doubted it given her age and healthy lifestyle. Nonetheless, she was aware she needed help and ultimately drove herself to the hospital.
"Looking back, I should've stayed put… and had someone nearby sprint to call 911,"...
