Beauty Queen Andrea Andrade Dies at 35 After 9-Year Battle with Colon Cancer

It’s heartbreaking to hear stories like this one. Andrea Andrade, a vibrant California beauty queen, passed away on January 16 at just 35 after fighting colon cancer for nine long years. She never stopped pushing forward, even when the odds were stacked against her.

Back in 2017, at only 26, Andrea was hit with a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis. Doctors gave her somewhere between six months and two years at best. But she turned that timeline upside down and lived nine more years, filling them with love, purpose, and helping others.

Her husband, Chris Wilson, shared such a raw, loving tribute on Instagram after she passed: “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.”

They’d been together eight years, married for two, and you can feel how deeply she changed him. Chris said he felt like he was “punching above my weight class” when they got together, but her authenticity, positivity, and encouragement won him over completely. “I fell in love with her soul,” he said. “She was my biggest fan, and I was hers. She gave me confidence. I’m forever grateful.”

Andrea was no stranger to the spotlight—she won five beauty titles, including Miss West Coast, Miss Nuestra Belleza USA, Miss Fresno County, Miss Regional West, and Miss California Congeniality. But those crowns? They weren’t what defined her.

What really mattered was her heart. Inspired by a little boy she saw rocking a superhero costume to chemo, she and Chris started “Not All Heroes Wear Capes.” They’d dress up as superheroes, bring mascots along, and visit kids in hospitals, handing out gifts and just trying to bring some light into really dark days.

She once posted about how bittersweet those visits felt, especially around the holidays. “This time of year is always bitter sweet for me,” she wrote in April 2025. “I love seeing the smiles but I know the pain these children and their families are going through, and it always hurts my heart. 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!”

Chris later said those moments were some of the most rewarding in her life. “She felt it was a great way to put a smile on families’ faces during what had to be challenging times.”

She did go into remission for a while, but the cancer came back aggressively, spreading and reaching stage 4. Things took a sharp turn in October last year. She still got to spend the holidays with family, but ended up in the hospital right after Christmas. Through everything—chemo, radiation, surgeries—she kept inspiring people. Chris put it simply: “She never, never stopped fighting.”

It all started during a trip to Mexico with her grandmother. Severe cramps and heavy bleeding hit hard. She’d dealt with endometriosis before, so at first it seemed like more of the same. But it got so bad they rushed to the hospital. She’d lost three pints of blood. Doctors said she might not make it through the night without a transfusion, and they didn’t have enough blood on hand. Her grandma called her parents to say goodbye.

Her dad wouldn’t accept it. He rallied people from their small town—truckloads of them—to donate blood until there was enough. That saved her life long enough for tests to reveal the colon cancer.

One thing her aunt told her during treatment stuck forever: “God gives his toughest battles to his strongest warriors.” Andrea even had that phrase engraved on a chemotherapy bell she donated to a new cancer center in Fresno. Patients ring it to celebrate finishing treatment—a small victory she helped make possible, even though she never got to ring it herself.

Colon cancer’s sneaky like that, especially in younger people. Symptoms can be easy to brush off—abdominal pain, blood in the stool, changes in bowel habits, unexplained weight loss, fatigue. Andrea’s early signs got mistaken for her endometriosis at first because of her age. Doctors often don’t suspect cancer in someone so young. If anything feels off, it’s worth getting checked out sooner rather than later.

She’s survived by her husband Chris, her parents, her older brother Junior, and younger brothers Eric and Jose.

Andrea’s gone now, but the way she lived—full of grace, strength, and kindness—will keep touching lives. Rest in peace, Andrea. You fought so hard and left so much light behind.