“Doing the London Marathon has always been on my bucket list and I didn’t want to do it for any charity other than the Trust” – Orla’s story

Growing up with CF

I was diagnosed with CF when I was three months old. It was the classic CF diagnosis – I had constant chest infections and failure to thrive. I had a few hospital stays in early life, but through childhood my health was mainly fine. I had a few chest infections but I was constantly doing exercise - doing competitive gymnastics, trampolining and dancing.

My mum says she remembers a Blue Peter episode about the heel prick test starting to test for CF in some places, but had no real idea of what it was.

When I was about 16 or 17, my health started to decline and I had to go to hospital semi-regularly for IV antibiotics two or three times a year. Then I started having issues with the cannulas and they started talking about PICC lines, and then when they couldn’t get those in anymore, I had a port put in in 2018.

I was always pretty open throughout my life about having CF, even when I was a little kid. My best friends were always fighting about who got to come to the office with me to get my Creon. I think my mum has explained to all the teachers before I started at school, but she would come in at lunch time to do extra physio when I had an infection. I liked explaining to friends and teachers about what my CF was and what that was like. 

Working life

I applied to study paramedic science at university but failed the interviews. I had anxiety speaking to people and academically, my ADHD impacted my concentration and led to a lot of procrastination. With CF, that meant that sometimes I would procrastinate and forget to do treatments or take medicines which has occasionally impacted my health.

After school, I started working as a waitress and was made redundant in the pandemic. In 2021, I applied for a healthcare assistant job in elderly care and then later applied for the ambulance service again. The healthcare assistant job set me up really well and gave me a lot of practical healthcare experience. I then did an apprenticeship and am now an ambulance practitioner.

An ambulance practitioner is similar to a paramedic, but I have more of a clinician role, so I can’t put a canula in or administer drugs like morphine. I drive on blue lights and treat people, and I can’t offer a diagnosis, but I can give my professional opinion.

Having CF has made me interested in clinical skills and how the body works. I knew I wanted to do something medical but I think because I have ADHD, the paramedic lifestyle fits me well as it’s active and always different. 

Training for the marathon

In 2019 I started on Symkevi - my lung function went up and my health stabilized, and I haven’t had a hospital admission since then. I started on Kaftrio in 2020, and my lung function sky-rocketed, and my cough went away completely. No clearing throat or anything, it just stopped. I’ve lived a very normal life since then. 

My dad did the marathon for the Trust in the early 2000s, and he raised a lot of money. My mum does a lot of running too (my dad hasn’t run since!) and she did the marathon in 2023. So you could say it runs in the family. I’ve always wanted to get into running but my health has never been quite good enough - I’d get breathless and give up. 

After starting Kaftrio, I started running short distances and built up to 5km, then I wanted to do 10km and then I did a half marathon. Doing the London Marathon has always been on my bucket list and I didn’t want to do it for any charity other than the Trust. I can’t believe I got a place!

Training is fine, but the weather is really not helping! I don’t like running when it’s cold and raining. In my most recent run, I ran 19km. It was okay! I’ve been doing strength training in the gym to help build some muscle too.

I’ve got friends, family, and my partner coming down to support on the day, and until the big day, you can follow my journey on TikTok @orlakaty