Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis

It's that time of year again y'all.

There are approximately 40,000 people in the United States with Cystic Fibrosis. In my life, I have known 3. My high school friend Linda died from complications of Cystic Fibrosis. My cousin Aaron will celebrate his 34th Birthday this July -- he is recovering from a very serious viral infection that nearly compromised his lung function to the point where they thought he would not fully recover. Fortunately, he is, once again, proving them wrong. Lastly, I am walking for 4 year old Maddie. Maddie is my ex-husband's daughter. She and her sister are a huge part of my life.

I will do this walk for all of them. Even if you can only afford to donate $1.00, that's $1.00 closer to a cure. One dollar closer to new medications.

http://www.cff.org/great_strides/dsp_donationPage.cfm?registeringwalkid=6332&idUser=294255

A note from Maddie's mom, Sandy:

" This has been a VERY big year for the CF Foundation. They have released the findings of two drugs in clinical trials that are the closest thing to a "cure" yet. One drug is in Phase 3 and ready to go to the FDA in the near future. This drug, unfortunately, does not address either of Maddie's gene mutations. However, the 2nd drug, VX-809, is a drug that would work to repair one of Maddie's two faulty genes. This drug is in Phase 2 clinical trials and it is now our job to raise as much money as we can to help bring this drug to Maddie and the thousands of others with her mutation!

Maddie has had a great year! She loves her first year of preschool and her specialists tell us that she is the healthiest CF patient in RI! She does do alot everyday to stay this healthy (chest physical therapy, nebulizer treatments, lots of meds and vitamins, and lots of exercising and Dr. appointments, not to mention dodging all the germs out there right now!). We can't wait for the day when she can get the drugs she needs to eliminate some of this for her, not to mention to eliminate our fears and concerns for her future. We're hoping that you will help us again this year to really make a difference in the future of this disease! We would love to have you join us to walk on Saturday, May 8th at 8:30 am at Roger Williams Park, Providence. This is a 5K walk, takes about an hour, and it is followed by lots of free food and entertainment. This year (for those of you with kids) the Toe Jam Puppet band has generously agreed to perform! It is going to be SO much fun! I can't stress enough how much we TRULY appreciate ALL the amazing support we have received over the last two years. Maddie's diagnosis has been, and will continue to be, a very hard thing to deal with. BUT... the support we have received has honestly made it SO much easier! To have people walk with us last year that we've never met or hadn't seen in 15 years, to have 50 people out there walking in the pouring rain (No worries for this year...I've already put in my request for SUNSHINE!), it REALLY did make a HUGE impact on how Maddie views this disease and how we as a family deal with it! Thank you for anything you can do to help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're looking forward to having even more friends and family walk with us this year and help us beat last year's total to raise $5000 this year!!!!""