Annie B:
Cystic fibrosis is something that you have when you’re born. It’s a genetic thing, but I found out when I was four years old.

Jeffrey Beach:
Primarily it creates an environment within the lungs that makes them highly susceptible to having thick, sticky mucus, which is a breeding ground for bacteria, that leads to lung infection and ultimately the destruction of lung tissue.

It’s a very difficult disease to treat.

Annie B:
I take eighty pills and medications a day, I’ve spent about eleven months in hospital over the last year and a half. It’s been a big struggle, especially as I get older and I kind of get a bit sicker.

Jeffrey Beach:
As you can imagine, for parents, dealing with that on top of the normal pressures of parenting, it can be quite a very difficult disease to manage. And for adults living with CF, that doesn’t stop, so that continues into adulthood.

So for people who are trying to lead normal lives, it can be a very, very difficult disease to deal with.

Annie B:
People can die pretty young. That’s one of my biggest fears, just dying before I get to do what I want to do. I’m only nineteen, I wish I was at school with all of my friends, doing what normal nineteen-year-olds would be doing. I just feel I’m not living to the fullest potential that I have.

Jeffrey Beach:
Cystic Fibrosis Canada is a national charitable organisation that has as its mission, to end cystic fibrosis. And the way that we are working towards that mission, is by funding healthcare programs, research and advocacy programs that improve the lives of people living with CF.

Annie B:
It’s made a big, big impact in my life. I’ve seen the treatments, even since I was young. I’ve see them develop and they’ve affected me and my lifespan already.

Jeffrey Beach:
One of the best things about working with Federated Health Charities, is the fact that it’s stable support that we know that we can rely on. The funds that have been generated have really made a huge difference in the lives of people with CF, in leading better lives and longer lives.

Annie B:
To the donors who are helping this charity, I just want to say, like, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’ve been affected by this change, I know that my life is longer and fuller and happier, because of the money that has been given to CF Canada, and it means the world to me, it really does.

Jeffrey Beach:
Back in 1960, when our organisation was founded, children with CF had a life expectancy of about five years of age. If you fast forward to today, that life expectancy for children born with CF, is over fifty three years, and that continues to elevate on a yearly basis.

And we’re getting closer and closer every year to cystic fibrosis being a disease that is treatable and ultimately curable.

Annie B:
I have, like, a very full, happy life. I have so many great family members and great people around me. Despite everything, I still find a way to be happy.