Every year Memphis hosts the Great Strides Walk benefiting Cystic Fibrosis research. This year marks the third year I have participated. Please read on and consider donating to my team so we can find a cure for CF! You can donate as little as $5 or if you REALLY LOVE ME, you can donate six hunnit and fiddy dollas!
Click below to donate:
Jacqueline Pannell – Lungs for Life Team – Memphis 2018
Whew! Now that I’ve given that little spiel, let me share a little bit of my story with you.
New Year’s Eve 2015 – I met a man. Well, technically, I already knew the man. We attended the same church and had seen each other on occasion. But that night marked an actual, hey-would-you-like-to-meet-up-someplace kind of date (in my defense, he was too cute to turn down). Thus began my CF education.
In a nutshell, CF is a genetic condition that creates a sticky, thick mucus that affects mainly the lungs and pancreas, not to mention potentially other organs. Life expectancy in 1940 was below 5 years of age. In 2000, a person with CF didn’t make it to 30 years of age. Today, life expectancy is just over 37 years of age. Bryan, my guy, is 50. In 1997, he underwent a double lung transplant. You can read his transplant story here.
The double lung transplant saved his life, but that’s not always the case with everyone with CF. It certainly doesn’t mark the end of his particular story as the gene is still in his body, of course, and still affects other organs. Not to mention, years of strong drugs have also wrecked havoc on his body. CF continues to be a daily struggle.
In 2016, approximately 30,000 people in the United States were reported to have Cystic Fibrosis. That’s 30,000 too many. Genetic research in general has advanced in leaps and bounds and continues to progress. Over a span of 75+ years, CF research, in particular, has successfully produced therapies in multiple phases that attack the disease.Given the success rate of therapy research, a cure cannot be too far behind. Cystic Fibrosis research must continue if more effective therapies and an ultimate cure is to be found.
Researchers are constantly finding out new things about Cystic Fibrosis and it’s so exciting to know that they continue to move forward one step at a time towards finding a cure. However, the clock is steadily ticking for all who are currently battling CF. Dealing with a growing number of friends who have CF and the exciting strides that have been made in research is what drives the intensity of my fund-raising efforts.
Need more convincing?
Get a sneak peek into the lives of families who deal with the ugly face of Cystic Fibrosis on a daily basis. Check out this short list of blogs: Top Ten CF Blogs for 2017. Grab your box of Kleenex and Google “Cystic Fibrosis life stories” and experience CF through the eyes of a child, a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a wife, a husband, a friend. Humans are resilient. In the face of death, we fight. And that will to fight and live life to the fullest is what reminds all of us of why we’re here. I’m here to contribute another small voice in a steadily-growing crowd of Cystic Fibrosis Advocacy.
My Mosaic Life 
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