By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Friday, August 1, 2008 12:00 am
Bush signs childhood cancer act into law
President George W. Bush signed H.R. 1553 into law Tuesday afternoon, making the Conquer Childhood Cancer Act official - and an 8-year-old Corvallis girl's life work a success. The law authorizes $150 million in funding for pediatric cancer clinical trials research, creating a childhood cancer database and other efforts to educate and cure childhood cancers over the next five years.
Jenessa "Boey" Byers spent much of the last year of her life being a vocal advocate for the legislation. She and her family gained national celebrity a year ago when the ABC show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" rallied the community to help build the family a new house. Everyone involved in what became a community project had hoped the house would help Boey with her second battle against rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare, aggressive childhood cancer that is fast-growing and occurs in soft muscle tissues.
Wyden became involved with the legislation after Boey contacted him and promised that he would be her hero if the act was passed. The legislation was championed by bi-partisan supporters.
Boey died on Dec. 28, 2007. Her parents, Rachel and Rob Byers, celebrated their late daughter's victory in their online Web log:
"Boey's dream of getting the bill signed for all her warrior friends became reality today. We are just elated and so honored to have the most amazing, extraordinary, bravest, strongest and most gorgeous daughter in the entire world," they wrote after they received the news that President Bush had signed the act into law.
"We can just hear Boey saying, 'Just believe, and it can happen,'" they wrote. "She never stopped believing, and cancer never took her spirit."
The Byerses also noted Wyden's efforts: "Thank you for fighting so hard for her dreams of getting this bill passed … This means so much to our family."
The bill passed the House unanimously on June 12, and the Senate also unanimously passed the bill on July 16. The legislation is known as the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act, in honor of the 9-year-old daughter of Congresswoman Deborah Pryce, who died of cancer in 1999.
President Bush lost his younger sister, Robin, to leukemia in 1953. She was 3-years-old.
For more:
- To see a YouTube video of Boey and related items online, see www.gazettetimes.com.
- To see a YouTube video of Boey reading her letter to Sen. Wyden, see www.youtube.com/watch?
v0ZNpA-x-d5o
- To see Wyden speak about Boey on the Senate floor, see www.youtube.com/watch?vBJK7USjVXfY
- To read her parents' blog, see www.jenessabyers.com