Barry student nominated for CNN Hero of the Year Award

Contact: Jeremy Jones
(305) 899-3195

Miami Shores, Fla. – Andrea Ivory, a student in Barry University’s School of Adult and Continuing Education (ACE), is among 10 finalists nominated for CNN’s Hero of the Year Award. The winner will be announced during the network’s “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” airing Thanksgiving night.

Ivory, a second-year student majoring in public administration at Barry, was nominated for the work she has done through the Florida Breast Health Initiative to raise awareness about breast cancer and to encourage women to get mammograms. It’s an issue that Ivory, 50, is all too familiar with. In 2004 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and her survival led her to start the Florida Breast Health Initiative. Since 2006, Ivory and fellow volunteers have knocked on more than 18,000 doors across Miami informing women about breast cancer and early detection. She has helped provide more than 500 free mammograms to women.

“The only thing that we have to fight this disease and lower the mortality rate is early detection,” says Ivory. “We are the troops on the front lines. No woman needs to die from breast cancer. I can't be a doctor, but I know I can save a life. Every time I knock on the door, it’s a chance to do that.”

Ivory and volunteers spend every weekend in the spring and fall visiting low-income communities in South Florida to educate women about breast cancer. One of their specific targets are uninsured women 35 and older. This group, according to statistics, is twice as likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. One Saturday a month, Ivory partners with a hospital to bring a mobile mammography van into the communities so that women can take advantage of breast cancer screenings. “Those women don't even have a fighting chance,” Ivory says. “Early detection is the best protection.”

To learn more about Ivory or to vote for her as the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, visit http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html.