8 notable guests at the State of the Union address
Maurice and Kandice Barron
Biden drew attention to "Maurice and Kandice, an Irishman and a daughter of immigrants from Panama." The president said Maurice "wrote us a letter about his little daughter Ava."
"She was just a year old when she was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease, cancer," Biden said. The girl was subjected to "26 blood transfusions, 11 rounds of radiation, eight rounds of chemo" and kidney removal.
While her rare cancer came with a 5% survival rate, the parents "just found out Ava's beating the odds, [and] is on her way to being cured of cancer." Cheering that "she's watching from the White House tonight if she's not asleep already," Biden indicated a desire to watch her success story become a "truly American moment that rallies the country and the world together and proves that we can still do big things."
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"Twenty years ago, under the leadership of President Bush and countless advocates and champions, he undertook a bipartisan effort through PEPFAR to transform the global fight against HIV/AIDS. It's been a huge success. He thought big. He thought large. He moved. I believe we can do the same thing with cancer. Let's end cancer as we know it, cure some cancers once and for all."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
