Emma Heaton
•8/28/2026
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. (WINK)—A local woman is getting a rare invitation to the White House.
Andrea Lee has been invited to an event in Vice President J.D. Vance's office, marking the culmination of Drug Overdose and Poisoning Awareness Week. WINK News anchor Emma Heaton sat down with her as she shared her "why."
Clutching a photo of her daughter Amanda, Lee tells WINK News this is why she does what she does. After her daughter died from fentanyl in 2020, Lee turned her grief into advocacy.
"I do what I do because my daughter, who suffered with addiction for 10 years, finally succumbed to fentanyl," Lee said.
Amanda had been a college student when Lee says she was first prescribed oxycodone after surgery. When the prescription ran out, Amanda turned to heroin.
Lee says that's when fentanyl entered the picture.
"It wasn't until fentanyl was introduced into the heroin supply that it was a death sentence," Lee said.
Since losing her daughter, Lee has spent nearly six years trying to keep other families from experiencing that same loss. She founded and now runs the Beyond Fentanyl Project, a Facebook group with about 30,000 members.
"The only way that I could make it get lighter for me was to start an awareness group," Lee said.
That advocacy is now taking her to Washington. With this invitation, Lee will fly to the nation's capital Sunday.
Monday, she'll stand alongside other parents who have lost children to drug overdose or poisoning. The event will include remarks from Sara Carter, the director of National Drug Control Policy, along with cabinet secretaries and senior administration officials.
For Lee, it's a moment she never imagined when she was living through the darkest days after her daughter's death.
"I'm really proud of myself. I've gone from honestly being suicidal for the first three months that Amanda was dead… and then after three months, my husband told me, 'This is enough. You've got to get up, and you've got to live.' And I realized that the only way that I could do that was to try to help others," Lee said.
Now, she's taking her daughter with her. She'll bring the framed photo, one of the few personal items parents are allowed to take to the event.
"I think she would be so proud of me," Lee said.
Lee says she wants her message to reach far beyond the walls of the White House. She says that starts with moms and dads talking to their children and knowing the risks.
Her hope is that this trip to Washington helps her reach even more families.
