An Upper Marlboro, Maryland, woman is heading to Las Vegas this weekend, and if she wins big, what happens in Vegas won’t just stay there.

At least that’s the plan for 50-year-old Moniesha Shorter, who as the reigning Mrs. Maryland, is going to Las Vegas to compete in the United States of America Mrs. pageant. But she’s already faced down bigger stakes than that before. In fact, that’s why she’s going there to compete in the first place.

“I’m a three-time breast cancer survivor, and so I use my journey to empower women to take ownership of their health journeys,” said Shorter, who took a break during one of her training sessions at the Prince George’s County Sports and Learning Complex to share her story with WTOP.

“The diagnosis, in and of itself, was a surprise,” said Shorter, who said she had no family history of cancer. “I think once I did receive that diagnosis, I began to ask a lot of questions that doctors really didn’t have answers for. And I think that’s where it kind of started.”

Her first diagnosis came in 2016, when Stage 0 cancer was discovered. To be safe, she had a double mastectomy. Two years later, and with most of her breast tissue gone, she was diagnosed with Stage 1A breast cancer. In 2021, doctors found Stage 4 breast cancer.

“Fortunately for me … it was detected early,” Shorter said.

But she said as a Black woman, she knows the odds continue to be stacked against her, which is a big reason she’s advocating so loudly for all women to get regular screenings and continue to fight for the care they deserve.

“We are underrepresented in clinical research, and that is why sometimes the medicine doesn’t work,” she said. “We also are diagnosed younger and with more aggressive forms of the disease. So sometimes it’s not caught in time because there are women who are getting cancer in their 20s — their 30s. I was in my 40s. I just turned 40, actually, when I was diagnosed the first time, which is fairly young.”

‘More athlete than beauty queen’

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Shorter has been entering bodybuilding competitions throughout her journey, and her trainer Ro Mobley said it’s pretty easy to see where Shorter gets her strength from.

“As she was going on, and she was continuously working out … I’m sure it contributed to helping with her self-esteem,” Mobley said. “Even with her diagnosis, as she was able to go and see her doctor, she increased strength endurance, ability to just say, ‘Hey, let’s continue on.’ And I believe that that helped with whatever she was going through, whether it was physical, mental or spiritual.”

Mobley jokingly said the Upper Marlboro beauty queen will soon be “all of our queens,” which is a declaration Shorter admitted she never expected would get made about her.

“Beauty queen is not something I ever thought I would be,” Shorter said. “I’m more athlete than beauty queen.”

But it was her story, and her willingness to be an advocate for better health outcomes, that inspired others, who then encouraged her to enter the pageant.

“What it really allows me to do is use this platform to promote preventative health care and making sure that women understand their risks and that they demand the care that they deserve,” Shorter said. “If you don’t know the questions to ask, if you don’t know the things to do, you could get a diagnosis that you’re not prepared for, or you could not get great care, and both of those things are detrimental to your health long term.”

The United States of America Mrs. competition begins on Friday night and runs through Sunday in Las Vegas. And while she’s already won so many bigger, more important competitions, Mobley thinks Shorter has at least one more in her.

“I know she is going to be the queen that she is,” Mobley said.

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