CURE magazine, the nation's largest magazine for people with cancer, has announced the three finalists for the 2012 Extraordinary Healer Award for Oncology Nursing.

This year's finalists include Sheila Dropcho, BSN, RN, CCRP, from the Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center at Indiana University in Indianapolis, IN, Mary Heery, APRON, AOCNS from the Smilow Family Breast Health Center at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, CT, and Andrea Solano, BSN, RN-BC, from the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, NM.

One of this year's finalists helped a man with stage IV cancer find hope and a will to live, even though he had recently lost his wife of 30 years to cancer. Another braved a blizzard 2 days before Christmas to hand deliver patient education materials. The patient had decided to postpone telling her family of her diagnosis until after the holiday but was desperate to learn as much as possible in the meantime. The third finalist has gone to great lengths to help a child with cancer understand that his disease doesn't define him even though he's been battling cancer for 11 of his 17 years."

The three nurse finalists will be honored at a reception held in conjunction with the Oncology Nursing Society's annual conference on May 3.