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Angela Bassett has been named one of People‘s 2024 Women Changing the World — a list of eight honorees making a “major difference” with their “groundbreaking work.”
The honorary Oscar winner is highlighted by the magazine for her advocacy and work in heart health. Bassett’s mother, Betty Jane, who had Type 2 diabetes, died in 2014 from heart failure.
In a 2021 interview with Good Morning America, Bassett opened up about her desire to raise awareness for good heart health and her decision to become an ambassador for the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association’s “Know Diabetes by Heart.”
She said she felt motivated to spread word about the initiative’s purpose and highlight the link between Type 2 diabetes and heart disease because of her family’s history.
“With it, I’m able to just honor the woman that my mother was and also to use this incredible platform that I have to get the word out,” she said.
Other women highlighted on People’s list are Kali Reis, an advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women; CODA star Marlee Matlin, who works with the National Association of the Deaf; and April Babcock and Virginia Krieger, who started the advocacy group Lost Voices of Fentanyl.
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