Meet my son Jordan. He’s five years old. When he grows up he wants to become a firefighter—because he told me, “Mommy I like rescuing people.” Now I need your help to rescue him.

My little boy has a deadly form of Muscular Dystrophy called Duchenne. Right now Jordan is like any other five year old, he’s active and energetic. Jordan LOVES to dance. He turns up the music, jumps around his room, he poses and rolls. I love to see his face when a song he likes comes on the radio—his eyes get real big, and he runs in circles.

But soon everything will change. Without the special treatment he needs, my little boy will likely be in a wheelchair in five years, and won’t live long enough to turn 21. Hardly enough time to become the firefighter he dreams of. Not nearly enough time to “save all the lives” he wants to save.

Sadly, Jordan’s not alone--thousands of boys in the U.S. are affected by Duchenne each year, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans are left without hope after receiving a similar terminal diagnosis. I would do anything to save my son, and I believe that Jordan and all the other terminally ill patients like him deserve the right to try to save their own lives.

Earlier this year, I helped to get a “Right To Try” law passed in my home state of Indiana, which will allow Jordan and other terminally ill patients to access promising new medications that have not yet received full FDA approval but have been shown to be safe and potentially life-saving. This law gives my son a chance, but children in other states might not be so lucky.

There are currently only 17 states with Right To Try laws in our country, but with the stroke of a pen the FDA could wipe out the barriers that prevent all other terminally ill citizens from accessing this program.

Under the FDA’s current system, only 3% of terminally ill patients are accepted into clinical trials each year. If the FDA allowed greater patient access like Right To Try, tens of thousands of terminally ill patients could have access to safe new drugs that their doctors believe may help save or extend their lives years before they would otherwise be available.

For terminally ill patients like my son Jordan, that could mean the difference between life and death. There is no time to wait.

I want to see my son run, ride bikes, and grow up to realize his dreams. I want people of all ages with ALS, cancer, Muscular Dystrophy, and other terminal diseases to have hope.

Please sign our petition to tell the FDA to stop blocking the Right To Try.

Thank you for supporting Jordan and the Right to Try!

Love to all,

Laura McLinn