Lauren has heart to beat ailment

Lauren Maxwell, 17, loves to run. For years, she has competed in cross-country races and track meets at Notre Dame/Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady, where she is a senior.

She has also swum competitively as a member of the Albany Star Fish swimmers and hopes to get a swimming scholarship to Fordham University.

Over the summer, however, her hectic sports schedule was interrupted when doctors discovered she had a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia.

Fixing heart

Doctors think Lauren may have been born with the condition, which normally doesn't manifest itself until mid-life; or it may have been triggered by two bouts of Lyme Disease she had several years ago.

The parishioner at St. Helen's Church in Niskayuna was told that if she didn't have a procedure to correct her condition, she would have difficulty with sports.

"The first week of September, I had the procedure done," she said. "Two weeks later, I was able to compete in our first track meet. I felt so much better."

The procedure -- cardiac catheter ablation -- corrects the condition, which causes the rapid beating of the upper chambers of the heart.

Activities

Lauren feels terrific and has resumed her normal sports schedule. But sports isn't the only activity on her agenda. Another comes this weekend when she is scheduled to act as the leader of a teen weekend called Journey Retreat. She has been preparing for the retreat since mid-August.

Lauren attended her first Journey Retreat two years ago, after her grandfather passed away. A family friend, Rev. Leo Markert, pastor of St. Gabriel's parish in Rotterdam, suggested she go.

"He thought it might help me, and it did," she said.

For teens

Father Markert said Journey Retreats began in Albany in 1986 as a weekend for college students at SUNY-Albany. The late Rev. Tony Maione got the idea to revamp it into one for teens.

Father Markert, who is on the board of directors of the event, has seen over 800 Catholic teens go through the weekend.

"It helps them build their own spirituality, and discover and enhance a personal relationship with God," he said.

Pluses

Lauren noted that a lot clicked into place for her at her last retreat when she acted as a peer leader.

"I was able to help others find answers to some of their questions about God, about themselves and about their spirituality," she explained. "I got a lot of fulfillment out of doing that, and I wanted to keep going back."

Lauren has planned, organized and coordinated the upcoming weekend. She has spent every other Sunday afternoon for the past three months at four-hour meetings with the leadership committee, getting ready for the retreat. The committee is made up of students who have already made the Journey Retreat and adult leaders.

Committed

"It's been a big commitment, especially for senior year," Lauren noted. "I've got a lot going on, with graduation, classes and sports commitments. It's been worth it, though.

"All my life I've enjoyed helping others, pleasing others and putting others before myself. At the retreats, I get to help others my age find what I found -- myself.

"The Journey Retreat experience has made me realize what really matters in life, and that is family, God, friends and helping others."

(11/16/06) [[In-content Ad]]