Sometimes Cadence Weaver’s juvenile rheumatoid arthritis keeps the 9-year-old home from school — the flareups so intense she cannot walk or write.

But, the Napoleon girl isn’t letting her arthritis hold her back from trying to make a difference for others who suffer from this same disease.

Last month, Cadence and her mother, Melissa Weaver, traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate on behalf of the recently introduced Patients’ Access to Treatment Act of 2015 to lower cost-sharing, or copays, for certain medication treatments.