BOSTON -- A local beauty queen is doing whatever she can to save your heart. She's trying to raise awareness about heart disease -- a cause that is very close to her own heart.

NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported that Michaela Gagne was crowned Miss Massachusetts 2006. But the beauty queen wants to be recognized for more than her bright smile.

"When I was 17, I was diagnosed with a disease called long QT syndrome. When you hear about athletes suddenly dropping dead on the field with no warning-- it's the same family. It can come on unexpectedly," Gagne said.

Long QT syndrome is a rare, genetic heart defect. If untreated, it can stop the heart, causing sudden cardiac death. About 450,000 people a year die from sudden cardiac death, and more than 14,000 are children.

"And most aren't aware of its existence. It often comes without symptoms," Gagne said.

Fortunately, her condition was caught early after she passed out while playing soccer. She was then fitted with an internal defibrillator. If there is an arrhythmia, it will shock her heart into pumping properly.

"The defibrillator protects her life," Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center cardiologist Dr. Panos Pappagourgio said.

Pappagourgio is an expert on long QT syndrome. He said this the defect often shows up in young children. While it is very rare, affecting as few as 1 in 10,000 people a year, parents still need to know the warning signs.

"The kids present themselves with passing out. They can present with seizures, and sometimes they can be misclassified as a seizure disorder. And of course sometimes, the most dramatic would be sometimes the kid dies," Pappagourgio said.

Gagne was lucky. The portable defibrillator continues to protect her heart, without slowing her life down. It allows her to spread the word about sudden cardiac death. She's the spokesperson for the American Heart Association's Go Red campaign.

"Heart disease has always thought to be a man's disease, but it is a woman's disease. It is a children's disease. All Americans should be aware," she said.