"It makes us live for every moment"

Our son Harry is phenomenal; he is a typical teenage boy who loves football and gaming. He is strong, resilient, funny and very smart.  

Harry was diagnosed with CF via the heel prick test. We had no knowledge of cystic fibrosis at all. It made me look at life very differently and live for every moment. It was sad and hard at times, but we all have made sure he is not treated any differently and he has every opportunity to do whatever he wants to in life.  

Cystic fibrosis affects our daily lives with the constant meds, the constant physio, and decisions you constantly have to make weighing up the risks to Harry’s health. In the last two years, Harry has had low lung function and numerous hospital admissions. He has also been diagnosed with CF diabetes which we have all found really hard.  

Over the festive period we very aware of the bugs going around, and if anyone is ill we have to be very mindful and usually cancel as we don’t want to take the risk, especially with Harry battling constant low lung function over the last few years.  

Last year, Harry was in hospital in the lead up to Christmas because of low lung function and that was really tough. It’s hard on my other children too, who are with different family members. But we try to pull together and still make everything as special as possible. Our hospital is very good at this too.  

To those who don’t have CF, I would say try and be mindful and educate yourself about the condition. A cold may just be a cold to those of us who are healthy, but it could make people with CF very poorly.  

Our future hope for cystic fibrosis is for there to be more knowledge and more medicines. I have every confidence that one day we will beat CF and we can make every breath easy, for everyone with the condition.  

With your help this Christmas, we can fund the revolutionary research that can help turn worry into wonder for everyone with cystic fibrosis.  

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