hbo documentary, "the education of dee dee ricks," which premieres tomorrow night on hbo and showing that kind of imbalance may even determine who lives and who dies. dee dee ricks was young, only 38, when she found out she had stage two breast cancer. the divorced mother of two young sons pulled herself out of poverty and made a fortune on wall street. how did you make the decision to have a double mastectomy? >> i was told my chances are better by having a double mastectomy. you do the most radical street possible. i want to be around for my boys. >> reporter: as dee dee fought for her own life, she took on another fight, as well. to help poor women have the same chance for a cure that she did. that battle is at the heart of a new hbo documentary airing tomorrow called "the education of dee dee ricks." >> i felt it was my obligation to give back to those who didn't have what i had. >> reporter: so, just one week after a double mastectomy, dee dee travels 60 blocks forth from her penthouse apartment to harlem, a world away. to meet with renowned surgeon dr. harold freeman. >> i was really going to cut cancer out of harlem. but cancer wouldn't yield to

dee dee blaze, a hispanic republican group dedicated to increasing the latino republican voting bloc, but she recently left the party, becoming an independent because of the all the extreme anti-immigrant receipt ricks, and nia-malika henderson, political reporter for "the washington post," you can following her election 2012 blog on postpolitics.com. thanks to both of you for being here today. dee the party. tell us what happened? >> well, the straw that broke the camel's back for me was in addition to the anti-immigrant sentiment, the straw was marco rubio. a cuban from florida, whose family has benefited from amnesty, and government benefits, who decided to sponsor lamar smith, a republican from texas, his large government idea via the national e-verify program. both these people claim to be less government, but they are supporting large government ideas. now, we were already sort of getting used to the anti-immigrant and the anti-latino sentiment, but what did it for me was marco rubio sponsoring a large government idea. not only did he do that, he does not support our kids, our youth via the dream act, and she embraced arizona's harsh anti-immigrant law, and he's hispanic. >> his family ben phetted it, but he and others in the republican party are supporting these harsh anti-latina, anti-immigration laws like the ones we marched on in arizona. this is what has, in many ways