REDMOND - A local mother's passion and a KOMO 4 News special report are making history.

Lawmakers in New Mexico saw our special on Inflammatory Breast Cancer. And, they heard from that mom in the report, whose daughter has IBC.

Now, they want to help fight a killer disease with a $3 million promise they're about to make.

"To the honorable state of New Mexico Legislature, my name is Patti Bradfield, my daughter has stage four IBC," reads Redmond's Patti Bradfield.

The same letter she reads to me, was read Monday before lawmakers in New Mexico.

"My baby girl is dying and you all hold a piece of the puzzle to find answers to this disease."

Four years ago, Patti's daughter Tina was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer. It is the most lethal and aggressive form of breast cancer.

The National Cancer Institute says at least 5 percent of all breast cancer is IBC. No one knows how to prevent or cure it, and most women never heard of it until they got it.

Tina's cancer is stage 4 - there is no stage 5.

"Some of this is going to come too late for so many women," Bradfield cries into her hands.

On Monday, the lawmakers in Santa Fe also saw our special report on IBC, which we aired last May.

New Mexico Senator Tim Jennings asked them to support legislation to earmark $3.2 million for IBC research. His wife Patty has breast cancer.

"We showed the video from KOMO to legislators and it had a really terrific impact on them," says Patty Jennings.

The money would team the University of New Mexico with doctors in Houston, Texas, which is now home to the world's first IBC Clinic at the M.D. Anderson Medical Center.

We were there last October when it opened; it's the only place where patients and doctors from all over the world are working together on IBC research, full-time.

"They're going to be working together on their research to fund tissue sampling from around the world," says Jennings.

The Clinic needs IBC patients, tissue, blood and DNA samples. Once collected, the clinic's founder says the goal is to gain a better understanding of what causes IBC, develop a diagnostic blood test and imaging guidelines, and create new, more effective treatments.

"Doing this collaborative approach is a first," insists Jennings.

The bill's sponsors are confident it's going to become law in a matter of days. It passed unanimously in the New Mexico House Appropriations and the Senate Finance committees.

"This isn't a state issue, isn't a funding issue, this is a humanity issue," says Patti Bradfield.

IBC advocates say New Mexico's committee members hold the purse strings so passage looks good. And there is already momentum to encourage Washington lawmakers to follow suit.

"If New Mexico can do it, we can do it too," insists Bradfield, who dreams of testifying before lawmakers in every state. She says she would have gone to New Mexico to testify in person, but couldn't afford the plane fare.

She works full time on IBC advocacy -- it's all volunteer work. She's hoping others will join the fight and help her get to Washington, D.C., where she hopes to meet with Senator Ted Kennedy.

She's already met with Washington Senator Patty Murray. Bradfield thinks Kennedy could help influence the National Cancer Institute to help fund IBC research on a national level. Until she raises the money to get to the "other Washington", she's using her letter writing skills to make a difference.

IBC can be hard to detect. It forms in sheets in the breast tissue and often there's no lump. It's almost never caught on a mammogram. The best way to detect it is a biopsy. Some of the tell tale signs include: a swollen breast, red, stabbing pain, sometimes tiny spot looks like a bug bite.

For More Information:

www.mdanderson.org

KOMO's Inflammatory Breast Cancer Page -- including the original video that was e-mailed worldwide and all of our stories since.