[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 16, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1812-E1813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN MEMORY OF ANDREA MARTIN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2003

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the inspirational 
life and work of Andrea Martin, who died peacefully at her home on 
August 6. A loving wife, devoted mother, and treasured friend, Andrea 
was a woman of incomparable courage. A champion in the fight against 
breast cancer both locally and nationally, she used her resources and 
creativity to expose a national health crisis and fight a critical 
battle. She fought for all of us by advocating for safer and earlier 
detection, less toxic treatments and research into environmental 
causes. Andrea's memory will be cherished by her friends and loved ones 
and by those countless women whose lives she touched through her 
relentless advocacy.
  Born in New York City and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Andrea 
graduated from Tulane University and received her master's degree in 
French while on a fellowship at Tufts University. She moved to San 
Francisco in 1969, where she taught French at a local high school. Six 
years later, Andrea earned a law degree from Hastings College at a time 
when few women had the opportunity to attend law school. Five years 
after she joined the law firm of Crosby, Heafey, Roach, and May, Andrea 
left the practice to open Hog Heaven, a Memphis-style barbeque 
restaurant.
  In 1989, Andrea was diagnosed with breast cancer and told that she 
had little chance of survival. Andrea's determination and strength of 
character motivated her to overcome this challenge. After a difficult 
year of treatment, she joined Dianne Feinstein's gubernatorial campaign 
in California and became a top fundraiser for Senator Feinstein.
  After being diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time in 1991, 
Andrea chose to take the offensive. She founded the Breast Cancer Fund 
in the living room of her San Francisco apartment. Through her 
dedication and hard work, she transformed the Fund into one of the most 
influential breast cancer research advocacy group in the nation.
  For the rest of her life, she would be an important national leader 
in the fight against breast cancer. Andrea was a relentless advocate 
who helped convince elected officials, health officials, and scientists 
to spend more

[[Page E1813]]

time and money discovering and eliminating the environmental causes of 
breast cancer. Her conviction to educate the public on the 
environmental links to breast cancer inspired the CDC bio-monitoring 
legislation that I sponsored.
  Andrea ``climbed against the odds,'' literally and figuratively. 
Leading other survivors in the extraordinary mountain-climbing 
expeditions of Mt. Aconcagua in the Andes, Alaska's Mt. McKinley, and 
Japan's Mt. Fuji, she helped increase public awareness and raised over 
a million dollars for breast cancer research. She taught us that 
``working together with daring, dedication and determination, we can 
not only climb mountains one step at a time, but we can move them.''
  Andrea helped change how we talk and think about breast cancer--from 
a private challenge to a public health crisis that must be surmounted. 
She fought her battles like a fierce warrior, but lived her life with 
serenity and grace.
  To Andrea's husband, Richard Gelernter, her daughter, Mather, her 
father and stepmother, Irwin and Becky Ravinett, and to all her family 
and friends, thank you so much for sharing Andrea with us, and with the 
countless breast cancer survivors who relied on her indomitable spirit. 
As Andrea's friend and colleague, Wanna Wright, so movingly wrote, 
``her vision, like light, illuminated our lives.''

                          ____________________