NEED TO KNOW
- A California beauty queen has died nine years after being diagnosed with colon cancer
- Doctors initially gave Andrea Andrade six months to two years to live
- When she wasn’t competing in pageants and winning titles, the 35-year-old helped children in her community who had also been diagnosed with cancer
A California beauty queen has died at the age of 35, nine years after doctors diagnosed her with colon cancer.
Andrea Andrade died on Jan. 16, after she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2017, the Fresno Bee and Your Central Valley reported with both outlets speaking to her husband, Chris Wilson.
“My eternal love. I know this isn’t goodbye. I’ll see you on the other side baby. Keep your heavenly arms around me, I love you mi amor,” Wilson wrote on social media, his Instagram Carousel serving as a tribute.
The couple spent eight years together, two as husband and wife, per the Fresno Bee.
“I was punching above my weight class for sure,” Wilson said. “I was so surprised she ever gave me a shot. But what I realized really quickly was her authenticity.”
“I fell in love with her soul and what made her who she was: positive, encouraging. I was her biggest fan and she was my biggest fan. She gave me confidence. She believed in me. And for her to love me the way she did, I’m forever grateful,” he added.
When Andrade was diagnosed, doctors gave her six months to two years to live. She lived for nine more years, all while accomplishing her goals and helping others.
The beauty queen won five pageants — Miss West Coast, Miss Nuestra Belleza USA, Miss Fresno County, Miss Regional West and Miss California Congeniality. However, giving back was always at the top of her to-do list.
Andrade and Wilson founded “Not All Heroes Wear Capes,” a program that was inspired by a young boy she met who wore a superhero costume to his chemotherapy treatments, per Your Central Valley.
The husband and wife would visit different hospitals, spreading cheer to children, as documented on her social media.
“This time of year is always bitter sweet for me. I love seeing the smiles but I know the pain these children and their families are going through, and it always hurts my heart,” Andrade wrote, in part, in an April 2025 Instagram post. “This year I broke my own record, I promised myself I wouldn’t cry, I lasted a whole 2 minutes then I was bawling like a baby!”
The video showed the couple shopping for goods to distribute to kids at a hospital, where they were joined by characters like Bluey and the mascot for the Fresno Grizzlies baseball team.
“She said it was one of her most rewarding things of her entire life,” Wilson told the Fresno Bee of the program. “She felt it was a great way to put a smile on families’ faces during what had to be challenging times.”
Andrade had gone into remission, but the cancer later reappeared in her reproductive system and reached stage 4, per the Fresno Bee.
Things took a turn in October. She spent the holidays with her family, but just after Christmas, Andrade was admitted to the hospital.
During an interview with Inside Edition in December 2017, Andrade thought about how her diagnosis might affect her loved ones, saying, “I look at my parents. I am thinking, ‘I am their only daughter,’ and I think, ‘What would they do without me?’ ”
The beauty queen also discussed why she chose to follow her “lifelong dreams,” despite her diagnosis.
“She never, never stopped fighting,” Wilson told Your Central Valley. “She was just so inspirational to so many people.”
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In addition to her husband, Andrade is survived by her mother and father, older brother Junior and two younger brothers, Eric and Jose, per the Fresno Bee.
Funeral services for Andrade will be held at St. Anthony’s in Reedley, with a viewing open to the public on Feb. 4, Wilson shared on social media.
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