A teenage girl who spent her final years advocating for young people battling cancer is forever memorialized in history, thanks to a key bill passed by the House of Representatives.
Mikaela Naylon was just 16 when she died five years after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who helped lead the landmark legislation that became her namesake, said Mikaela spent much of that time fighting to give fellow children a chance to survive cancer.
He told Fox News Digital that he viewed childhood cancer patients as ‘the best advocates’ for their cause, calling them his ‘better angels.’
‘Mikaela was a great example of that,’ McCaul said. ‘She was very sick. She’d just undergone radiation and chemotherapy. She wasn’t feeling very well, and I could tell. But she still made the effort to come to Washington, to go to members’ offices and advocate for the legislation.’
The Mikaela Naylon Give Kids A Chance Act is aimed at expanding children’s access to existing cancer therapy trials, as well as incentivizing development of treatments and solutions for pediatric cancer.
It reauthorizes funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support pediatric disease research through fiscal year 2027, and extends the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ability to expedite review of drugs aimed at helping certain pediatric illnesses.
‘It’s probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve done is to not only draw awareness to childhood cancer by forming the [Childhood Cancer Caucus] and then having an annual summit, but to be able to pass legislation that results in saving children’s lives. I don’t think there’s anything more important than that,’ McCaul said.
His bill passed the House unanimously on Monday, with both Republicans and Democrats speaking out in strong support for the legislation.
Mikaela’s family was in attendance to watch both its passage and the speeches lawmakers gave in favor of it.
‘Nothing will take the place of her. But it helped fill kind of a void, an emptiness they have right now. And they’re very proud of that, that her legacy is carried on through this legislation,’ McCaul, who also gave the Naylon family a tour of the U.S. Capitol, said.
Mikaela’s parents Kassandra and Doug, and her brother Ayden, told Fox News Digital that she had ‘faced every day with hope, purpose and a fierce determination to make the world better for the kids who would come after her.’
‘She believed that all children, no matter how rare their diagnosis, deserve access to the most promising treatments and a real chance at life. This legislation reflects that mission,’ the Naylon family told Fox News Digital.
They thanked McCaul as well as Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., for championing the bill, as well as advocacy groups who also helped shepherd it forward.
‘Their commitment ensures that Mikaela‘s voice, and the voices of so many brave children like her, will forever be heard in the halls of Congress,’ the family said.