Recently, the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act was signed into law. The legislation, which was supported by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, is a pediatric research law named for Gabriella Miller, a 10-year-old Leesburg girl who died last year after a fight with a brain tumor.
Though Gabriella Miller lost her fight before seeing the bill become law, her legacy will live on through a decade of funding for pediatric medical research at the National Institutes of Health.
An article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch describes the continued efforts of Katie Schools, a seventh-grader in Virginia with a brain tumor who has experience beyond her 13 years in advocating for increased pediatric research funding.
In the article, Cantor says of Katie:
“She was there pleading for help for kids such as her who have been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and just wanting and wondering why there couldn’t be more help,” Cantor recently told reporters.
“So she really became the inspiration for the effort,” he said.
“It really, I think, represents an opportunity where folks of very different views on many issues can actually set them aside for once to come together to do something good.”
Read more in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.