Breast cancer runs in her family.

Her grandmother and great-grandmother didn’t beat it.

So, when breast cancer was diagnosed in her mother, Lindsay Avner heard a call to service.

While at Bexley High School, she organized the High School Team Challenge to encourage other teen-agers to participate in the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure.

The annual 5-kilometer race, conducted the third Saturday in May on the Ohio State University campus, raises money for breast-cancer research.

Now, as a sophomore at the University of Michigan, Avner wants to spread the High School Team Challenge nationwide to further the fight against breast cancer, which affects one in eight women.

For her efforts, the editors of the teen magazine CosmoGIRL! have named Avner a "Girl on Top."

A short feature on Avner, 19, appears in the October issue, which recognizes Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"We have this incredible girl who pretty much started the whole teen race around the country," Associate Editor Korey Karnes said from her New York office. "We wanted to show teen girls that anything is possible."

A year after her mother, Wendy, learned she had breast cancer, she successfully fought ovarian cancer, too.

"You don’t go through an experience like that as a 12-year-old and come out the same," Avner said from her Ann Arbor, Mich., dormitory. "I was still young and trying to deal with the emotions. When I got into high school, I wanted to get involved in the community in some way. During her junior year, she enlisted about 150 other Bexley students to join her "team" in the Race for the Cure.

The team challenged groups from four other high schools; they raised about $6,000.

The next year, more than 1,300 students and teachers from 21 high schools raised more than $27,000.

Mrs. Avner, president-elect of the Columbus Race for the Cure, recalled the long hours that her daughter devoted to the project.

"She has unbelievable drive," the New Albany resident said. "She wanted to spread awareness to teens and get them in the habit of doing breast exams for the rest of their lives."

This year, more than 1,800 students and teachers from 23 high schools took part, said Katie Mang, executive director of the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure.

"We’re very proud of Lindsay for her hard work and dedication," Mang said. "She’s been a great influence in getting this team challenge started."

In February, on a trip to St. Louis, Avner explained the program to more than 100 race directors attending the national convention of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She based her presentation on a 50-page manual she wrote as part of a senior project.

"I never worked so hard on anything in my life," she said. "I was just so sure that if I nailed this it would take off."

At least 12 cities have inquired about increasing teen involvement in the race, said Avner, a volunteer consultant.

Exposure in a national magazine reaching 1 million teenagers certainly doesn’t hurt.

"I have no doubt in my mind that it’s going to be everywhere," she said, "but it just takes a little time."

For more information on the High School Team Challenge, call the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure at 614-297-8155 or visit komencolumbus.org