Miss Fresno County, Andrea Andrade battling stage 3 colon cancer

This is Andrea Andrade. Battling a life threatening disease, Andrea plans on competing in this year’s Miss California pageant in Long Beach on Dec. 2.

It was two years ago when Andrade was in face-to-face with death.

“At four in the morning, I got up to use the restroom and before I even got to the restroom, I just bled out,” Andrade says.

That morning, her doctors did not expect her to make it through the night. Rushing to find her blood type, Andrea lost 3 pints of blood.

“I remember my dad… telling the nurse, ‘do whatever you can to save my daughter,’” Andrade says.

Making it through the night, Andrea is now living her life to the fullest, the best that she can.

Once every two weeks, for seven hours Andrade is connected to a machine, chemo pumped into her veins. After this, Andrade gets to go home, but the machine remains connected to her for an additional 3 days.

“The second the chemotherapy goes through my body , I don’t just feel weak, I feel a lot of pain, my headaches, very nauseous, I don’t eat it’s very hard on a person. My hair is starting to fall off,” Andrade says.

Once she is disconnected from her machine, Andrade is bed-rest until she feels better. She said she has at least 2-3 days of her feeling normal until her next chemotherapy.

As of now, Andrea is in the middle of her chemotherapy treatment. She needs 12 in total and is halfway there.

Although the cancer and the chemotherapy takes a toll on Andrea, she wants to live life in the best way that she can.

“You know I thought I was pretty much immortal, if I could say the least, like nothing’s ever gonna happen to me, but you know life just slapped me in the face really hard and it motivated me to just look at life differently,” Andrade says. “Like I just start cherishing things and looking at things a lot differently.”

Competing for Miss California, this is Andrea’s last chance, as she will pass the age requirements.

“I decided to do it because they pretty much gave me a timeline on how long I’m able to live and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do since I was a little girl,” Andrade says. “I always wanted to compete, I always wanted to just see what it was like and now that I’m actually able to do it…”

Andrade will be getting her gown for that evening custom-fitted. With chemo running through her veins, she will be connected to a machine as she walks down the California runway.

Andrade’s pageant coach, Maria Monzo, former Miss Grand Cuba believes in Andrade and is inspired.

“She has a great story to share, she can definitely use what shes fighting through as a platform to empower others whether it’s someone going through the same thing as her,” Monzo says. “Everyone has their battles and I feel like her positive energy can definitely  encourage and empower other people.”

Empowering people she did. Andrade won the Miss Congeniality Award in this Miss California pageant, but did not place.

Many news outlets in Fresno, Los Angeles, New York and the California pageant itself all conducted interviews with Andrade and her experience and their audience praised her bravery.

“It was a great experience,” Andrade says.