Cancer-Stricken Kids Beg Bernie Sanders to Pass Life-Saving Bill — After the Senator Was Branded ‘Evil’ for Blocking It
Jacob Knudsen would give anything to be an ordinary college freshman. . .
“There is something currently in my lung, and there’s a 50-50 chance that it’s cancer,” the “panicked” 18-year-old California native told The Post ahead of diagnostic scans. “I’m willing to bleed, I’m willing to lose limbs, I’m willing to lose organs, I’m willing to do anything just to survive.”
Knudsen was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when he was 12, and has since endured 21 surgeries and countless, grueling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation after tumors were subsequently discovered in his lungs, on a kidney and a lymph node. . .
Amid the anxiety over whether illness remains lurking in his body, Knudsen is pushing for the passage of the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act — a bipartisan bill named after his friend, a fellow osteosarcoma patient and advocate who died late last year at 16. . .
Last month, the bill — designed to allow pediatric cancer patients to participate in clinical trials and to ensure them access to key treatments — passed unanimously in the House.
Shockingly, when the bill moved to the Senate, it was opposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who demanded a quid pro quo be attached for the funding of other efforts, such as community health centers. (Read more from “Cancer-Stricken Kids Beg Bernie Sanders to Pass Life-Saving Bill — After the Senator Was Branded ‘Evil’ for Blocking It” HERE)
