Whiz Kid Update: Alex Simko, Allergy Advocate (Part 2!)

Most mothers of high school students are lucky to get a nice note and a gift card on their birthdays.  

But on Mary Lenahan’s birthday—Aug. 15—she watched Gov. Pat Quinn sign into law a bill that she and her daughter, Alex Simko, 16, have been advocating for since its inception.

“I couldn’t believe the signing actually happened on my birthday. It was a wonderful way to spend it,” Lenahan said.

The bill was the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, which would allow school nurses to keep undesignated Epi-Pens in a First Aid kit in case a student has an allergic reaction. 

It was inspired by 13-year-old Katelyn Carlson, who died in December, when she went into anaphylactic shock after eating Chinese food cooked with peanut oil. The tragedy hit all too close to home for Lenahan and Simko.

“I almost died when I was 4, and the Epi-Pen saved my life,” said Simko. “I don’t go anywhere without it.”

Simko was born with life-threatening food allergies to peanuts and tree nuts, and she’s outgrown allergies to beef, corn and eggs.

The rising junior at told Patch in June she wanted to make it easier on other students with severe food allergies.  earlier this year in support of the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act. 

Rep. Chris Nybo  (R-Elmhurst) and Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg (D-Evanston) sponsored the bill in both houses of the Legislature, and at the signing, Simko and Lenahan had the chance to thank Nybo for the first time. 

“Just being able to get to know these people who worked so hard on our behalf-you see them on TV, you see the bill signing process on TV, but to be able to witness it in person was just surreal,” said Lenahan.

And when she says “in person,” she means up close and personal—Lenahan and Simko were pulled out of the crowd to stand just to Gov. Quinn’s right as he signed the bill into law.  

“One of his assistants just put this huge pile of pens on the table, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK. This might take a while,’ ” Simko said. “I don’t know how he dragged out his name for that long.”

But when Quinn had finished signing the bill, Simko and Lenahan were each handed one of those pens.

“It was just such a moving experience. Being at Katelyn Carlson’s school and seeing her classmates, it was bittersweet,” said Lenahan. The ceremony was held at Edison Regional Gifted Center, where Katelyn had been in seventh grade, and her father gave an emotional speech at the ceremony. 

“The courage it had to take for him to get up there with Katelyn’s little brother, I can’t even imagine,” said Lenahan. “What they’ve gone through, he doesn’t want anyone else to go through. Having these extra undesignated Epi-Pens available at the schools will help save lives.”

But Simko and Lenahan don’t plan to stop now that the bill’s been signed into state law—they want a similar bill passed by the federal government. And whatever that requires of Simko, she’s up to the challenge.

“We’ll probably end up doing more,” she said. “I just don’t know what yet.”