Howard County native 'The Bald Ballerina' finds joy in the face of devastating cancer diagnosis
As we say goodbye to October, Breast Cancer Awareness month, it's important to remember breast cancer is the most common form of cancer for women younger than 39. It's rare. And only 5% of cases are women in their 20's.
Howard County's Maggie Kudirka was only 23 when she was diagnosed with stage 4, metastatic breast cancer. At the time she was just beginning her career as a professional dancer with New York's 'Joffrey Ballet Concert Group'. The prestigious company offered her a full scholarship.
Less than a year into her new, exciting career she felt a lump while showering. And she began to have extreme pain in the center of her chest.
"I knew something was wrong but I was living my dream so I didn't rush to go see a doctor", says Maggie. "I just kept dancing but the pain kept growing and growing until the point where I could hardly breathe or move but I was still dancing".
That's how it is for dancers. They're used to living and working with pain. And Maggie had been dancing since she was four years old.
Finally, the pain was so severe she knew she had to come back to Maryland and see a doctor.
"'You have breast cancer.' That changed my world in those four words". Maggie says she never anticipated this diagnosis. "It was nothing we expected because, of course, online searches said it was very rare for someone under 40 to get breast cancer and even rarer for someone in your twenties."
Maggie had no risk factors, no genetic markers, no family history, no answer to the 'why' she would get stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. The projection was devastating.
"I was given two to three years. And, I surpassed that pretty quickly for which I was really grateful, and I was able to really dance". Maggie tried to resume her dancing with the Joffrey while undergoing chemotherapy, but that proved impossible. So, she moved home and began treatment at Mercy Medical Center where she's been treated ever since.
Initially, she went through six rounds of intense chemo. She's had a double mastectomy, a hysterectomy, countless scans and biopsies, and her life has been extended three times because of 'miracle' drugs that didn't even exist when she was first diagnosed.
Those two to three years were surpassed and today, at 31, she's an eight-year survivor.
Each year Maggie holds a fund-raising concert in Howard County where dancers come from all over the country to help her raise money to pay for her outrageously expensive treatment.
"I've had over a million dollars worth of treatment," she said. "And if insurance ever puts a lifetime cap on it or the government puts a lifetime cap I would not have insurance. It's just unbelievable what that side of cancer does to a family and does to a person. It's hard."
Maggie lives at home with her parents, teaches a class at a local dance studio, and speaks whenever asked about breast cancer in younger women and the need for research into the causes and treatments for breast cancer.
She remains cheerful in spite of all the medical challenges she faces and will face for the rest of her life.
"I enjoy each day and try to, even if I'm having a bad day I try to laugh or do something joyous because I'm alive," Maggie said. "I should be happy about it."
Maggie's message is very simple: "No one is too young, too fit or immune from breast cancer."
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