DC beauty queen, 28, competing for Miss America survived SIX heart attacks before the age of 18

• Miss District of Colombia Jude Mabone still does not know why she suffered six heart attacks as a teenager
• She put beauty pageants on her bucket list for what she feared would be a life cut short 
• But ten years on she is determined to use her platform to raise awareness of heart disease if she is crowned Miss America in Orlando on Sunday  

A beauty queen who suffered six heart attacks before the age of 18 is determined to stop hearts fluttering if she is crowned Miss America on Sunday.

Miss District of Colombia Jude Mabone was a super-fit 16-year-old on a six-mile run when she suffered her first attack in July 2012.

Recognizing the symptoms from health classes at school, she headed for the nearest hospital where doctors were mystified by her condition.

They still do not know whether it was hormones or the environment which caused a wave of further attacks over the next two years, but she intends to use her profile to save lives.

‘This is the most indiscriminate disease in the US, and it’s also the thing that’s killing the most people,’ she said.

‘That’s why a big part of me taking on the Miss America platform was to destigmatize this.’

Mabone’s series of heart attacks turned her from a competitive track runner to a near recluse, spending every other week in hospital.

But it also spurred her to create a bucket list of ambitions for what she feared might be a very short life, and on that list was beauty pageants.

She had entered Miss DC seven times by 2021 when she turned 26 and no longer qualified.

But a change of management at the organization brought an uplift to the age limit and she triumphed last year to qualify for Sunday’s Miss America pageant.

It also brought a change of sponsors and a partnership with the American Heart Association as its national philanthropy.

Heart disease was already in the public mind when 24-year-old NFL star Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during a high-profile game in last year.

‘I thought, ‘All of these things are aligning. I should humble myself, get over my pride and try this one more time’,’ Maboné told CNN.

‘Because finally, it felt like the issue I’ve been talking about for a decade was finally one 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 hard.

‘My mom had a rule from the time we were in fifth grade to the time we graduated high school: to live in her house, we had to play a sport, play an instrument, learn a second language, join a club, have a leadership activity and take voice lessons,’ she said.

Mabone took to athletics but during a run in July 2012 started having chest pains, profuse sweating, difficulty breathing, dizziness, nausea and pain in her left shoulder.

Maboné recognized the symptoms from class but struggled to believe she was having a heart attack and delayed going to hospital.

‘Looking back now, I would have stayed put and had someone run somewhere nearby to call 911,’ she said.

‘Calling 911 is always the first thing one should do when someone is experiencing symptoms and I’m grateful to be equipped with that information and to be in a position where I can share with others what to do in a cardiac emergency.’

Medical tests kept coming back normal and she tried to hide her condition from friends and classmates as she suffered a series of further attacks, all while out running, in the following two years.

‘My doctor who diagnosed me told me that she believes that this type of condition is either hormonal or environmental, but we can’t pinpoint where it came from because it’s not genetic,’ she said.

‘It’s something I could potentially grow out of someday, or maybe not. It’s something that could get worse. It’s very inconclusive.’

But she has learned to live with her condition and control it with beta blockers, while returning to fitness.

‘I’m actually in better physical and cardiac shape than I was pre- 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 afflicts 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’ve been able to touch thousands of people in DC and even beyond DC,’ she said.

‘As Miss America, those thousands turn into millions.

‘I just see the opportunity here to really tangibly change the way that this country views this disease in a way that I don’t necessarily think I would get without the Miss America platform.

‘And with the partnership with the American Heart Association, there’ll be so many opportunities to leverage what they do and what I do to provide tangible change.’

DC City Council have already sat up and taken notice with new legislation for cardiac emergency response plans heading for a vote.

‘In my mind, the fact that these things aren’t federally mandated is a problem,’ Maboné said.

‘Heart disease kills more people than cancer, but it receives a very small percentage of funding.

‘To me, Miss America is somebody who also has a goal and is driven and committed to bettering the US in some way.

‘In my way, it’s heart health, which I think is exactly what we need right now.’