Allyn Rose, the 24-year-old who was crowned Miss District of Columbia in June, will undergo a a double mastectomy at some point after taking part in the Miss America pageant in January, reported People magazine last week:

The Miss America contestant, who will represent Washington, D.C., in the Jan. 12 pageant live on ABC, lost her mom to breast cancer at age 16. Now, at only 24 years old, Rose has decided she will undergo a double mastectomy as a preventative measure after learning she is a carrier of the same rare chromosomal disease that her mother had.

“The idea that I could wake up one day and not have the same body that I did the day before is very scary,” Rose, a self-proclaimed former tomboy, tells People. “But I also realize my mom was diagnosed at 27. That’s three years away from me. I’m not going to let my fear of losing this part of my femininity stop me from living.”

Rose, a Maryland native who placed in the top eight representing the Old Line State in the Miss USA pageant in 2011, explained the decision to ABC News: “Knowing I am a carrier I just said to myself I don’t want to put myself through what my mom went through. I want to be here for my kids’—no pun intended—crowning achievements.”

Rose will undergo the surgical procedure either after her term as Miss D.C. is up, or, if she wins the Miss America pageant, when that term ends in January 2014. She said she has made preventative and proactive health care a central component of her participation in the beauty pageant.

D.C. has been represented in the annual beauty pageant since its inception, and 16-year-old D.C. local Margaret Gorman won the inaugural pageant in 1921. The only other win for the city came in 1944.