Chester Girl Named Susan G. Komen Ambassador to Fight Cancer

The Susan G. Komen North Jersey Affiliate announced that it has selected 10-year old Mady Most from Chester, NJ, to be its 2014 Kids for the Cure Ambassador. Mady will serve in this role at the Komen North Jersey Race for the Cure® on Sunday, May 4th, and at other events throughout 2014.

“Mady is extraordinary,” says Jennifer Griola, Executive Director of Susan G. Komen North Jersey. Maybe it was a serendipitous birthright; maybe it was fate, but whatever it is, Mady Most is raising the most. In under a year, she has accomplished, on her own, more for the cause than most adults. So far, her team for this year’s Race on May 4th, The Pink Fighters, has raised over $9,000, mostly in small donations, towards a $10,000 goal. Out of 260 teams registered to date, Mady’s team, with 67 members, is the third largest, and is also the third highest in fundraising dollars, which is truly amazing. Kids like Mady, who are not only caring and compassionate—but worldly, articulate and aware—are our hope for the future, our fighting chance for a world without breast cancer. Mady has put the challenge out to other kids, and she will be a hard act to follow.”

This is Mady’s first year participating in the Komen North Jersey Race for the Cure, and she says that her paternal grandmother, Carol Most, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last July at the age of 65, has been her inspiration. “I was really scared and depressed when I found out she had breast cancer,” says Mady. I was worried that she wouldn’t survive, that she wouldn’t make it through her treatments. It was affecting my schoolwork and my grades and I was becoming a person that just wasn’t me. I told my mom that I needed to DO something, so that other women wouldn’t have to suffer like my grandmother.”

So Mady found out about Komen North Jersey, and became determined to raise as much money for the Affiliate as she could—so that she could “help find a cure.” She and her friends began making Rainbow Loom bracelets, and selling them for $1.00 each. But then, says Mady, “it was such a good cause” that they raised the price of the bracelets to $5.00 and added key chains at $2.00 each. Mady also has a keen sense of marketing—signage at her sales advertises “Looms for the Booms-Booms,” which she says “really gets people’s attention. “

And it began to grow—she started selling her bracelets in spin classes at Peak Performance in Chester (led by spin instructor Cheryl Beneduce Bock, this year’s Honorary Team New Balance Survivor Ambassador for Komen North Jersey), and then at ShopRite, a Local Presenting Sponsor for the Komen North Jersey Race for the Cure. Thinking creatively, Mady and her friends began to make “seasonal bracelets,” designing them around holidays like Halloween and Christmas. So far, they have raised $1,500 selling their bracelets and key chains.

But that wasn’t all—she then met Komen’s Executive Director, Jennifer Griola, who brought Mady “lots of pink stuff,” that Mady distributed at her school (Bragg Elementary School in Chester) to spread the word about the important of breast cancer awareness.  “Kids don’t realize how serious this is unless they experience it first-hand,” she says.

Her Race team’s name, The Pink Fighters, was chosen to represent “pink” for breast cancer, and  “fighters” because Mady knows that her grandmother is fighting cancer, and now Mady is fighting for the cause. “I wanted to make a difference in the world of breast cancer. I realized how horrible breast cancer is, and I said “I’m gonna make a difference. A difference that will impact the world.”

About Susan G. Komen North Jersey

Through their annual Race for the Cure and other initiatives throughout the year, Susan G. Komen North Jersey raises funds that support life-saving breast cancer screening, breast health/breast cancer education, treatment support, and survivorship programs to underserved women and men in the Affiliate’s 9-county service region (Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties). Since its founding in 1997, Komen North Jersey has awarded over $16 million in local community grants, and has directed more than $7 million to the national research programs aimed at finding new and better treatment options and, ultimately, the causes and cures to eradicate breast cancer forever. For additional Race information, to register, volunteer, start a team, or make a donation, visit www.KomenNorthJersey.org/race, or call 908-277-2904, ext. 17.