Thankful Tuesday: Rylie's Smile Foundation

LEWES, Del. - Rylie Maedler was diagnosed with aggressive bone tumors that disintegrated her facial bones when she was only 7 years old. A law named after her in 2015 continues to change the idea of pediatric medicine in the first state. 

Rylie says medical cannabis helped cure her when she was younger. Now she leads families around the globe a cure to be thankful for.

"I started taking it for my bone tumors," Rylie says. 

A world traveler, she attends medical conferences in places like Australia in 2018, an opportunity to be thankful for, but she's thankful for everyone who attends her annual 5K to raise money for the Rylie's Smile Foundation. A lot of legislative work came first.

"We brought her over to the chamber and let her speak to the house and I said yeah let me see you say no to that," says Speaker of the Delaware House Pete Schwartzkopf.

"To think of the initial caution that lots of individuals had in regards to medicinal marijuana and to see where things are today, the fact that someone like Rylie has put such a positive part in that has made a difference not just for her, but for children across the state and their families," says Senator Ernie Lopez.

Lopez and Schwartzkopf helped pass Rylie's Law 6 years ago to help give kids like her access to medical cannabis and that law has only evolved over the years. Rylie's mom used to have to take her out of school for a break to take her medicine.

"Children who have to take medicine do not need to have people looking at them saying oh look what is she doing, so we did change it so that other people could administer it to her," Schwartzkopf says.

In the last three years Rylie's Sunshine, a spinoff organization has partnered with Front Range Biosciences to help research how hemp plants grow in the mid-Atlantic region.

"With that research we give to Front Range Bio Sciences, we can donate proceeds from the oil we make to the Rylie's Smile Foundation to give to families that can't really afford medication," Rylie says.

Rylie does tissue sampling to help determine which cannabinoids are best suited for certain conditions

"This year we're growing CBG and CBC and CBC has just been known, there's some research out on it for ADHD and different spectrum issues and CBG is great for glaucoma, it's great for stoma and sleep and pain," says Rylie's mom, Janie Maedler.

Rylie has another plan to make medicinal cannabis more accessible.

"There are a lot of people that can't afford it because insurance doesn't pay for it," Janie says. "That's another legislative thing that she needs to work on."

Rylie will be speaking at the Medical Cannabis Science Conference in February. Rylie's Sunshine is currently processing its plant tissue data from this past cultivation so that the organization and its research partner can learn more about sustainably improving certain minor cannabinoid yields and the quality of plants. Plant material is also being extracted to go into manufacturing for finished products that will be donated to the Rylie's Smile Foundation's families in need. 

Click here to donate to the Rylie's Smile Foundation and learn more about upcoming events.