Defending Andy: One Mother's Fight to Save Her Son from Cancer and the Insurance Industry

As a hospice nurse Marilyn Azevedo had seen how disease could ravage a person's body and spirit, and how it could cripple friends and family with grief. She knew about life and death. Yet, nothing could prepare her for the journey she would face when her youngest child, Andy, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 16.

In this powerful memoir, readers share Azevedo's painful journey-from the days when she felt strong and powerful, to the days she just wanted to stay in bed and pull the covers over her head. But Azevedo's battle is more than a fight for her son's life as she takes on the health insurance bureaucracy and lobbies Congress to reform inequities. Sadly, reform comes too late to save Andy, but their efforts result in legislation preventing insurance companies from denying certain types of medical care.