“The doctors said that I wouldn’t live to the age of 30, so I wanted to do a challenge to celebrate reaching this milestone.” – Adam’s story

Growing up with CF

I was diagnosed with CF at six weeks old. I was quite poorly when I was born but the doctors thought it was just a cold. However, my mum said that she remembered being at university and hearing a talk on cystic fibrosis. She decided to take me to the hospital to check, and I was later diagnosed.

When I was younger, I had challenges with my health, but it was always well managed by my parents. I would have a regular course of intravenous antibiotics every three months until the age of 16. I’d also have physio and use a PEP (Positive Expiratory Pressure)  mask.

Growing up, things felt a little bit harder for me, and I used sport to escape from it all - it was an outlet to deal with my CF. I played rugby at an early age, from eight years old until I turned 18, and I noticed the benefits of physical exercise on my lung function. Then when I went to university, I'd still go to the gym, but I stopped doing regular exercise. So, I haven't always been fit. 

I started taking Kaftrio in 2020 and it was amazing, so I let myself slip and did even less exercise than I was doing before. I also started to experience some of the side effects of Kaftrio and at times I’d have mood swings and feel a bit down. I spoke to a psychologist and that really helped, but ultimately it pushed me to do my treatments and get back to exercise, which is how I live my life now.

Deciding to take on the 13 lakes swimming challenge 

When I was growing up, the doctors said that I wouldn’t live to the age of 30, so I wanted to do a challenge to celebrate reaching this milestone.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but one day while I swimming it occurred to me that the breathing method is similar to using the PEP mask - it literally felt exactly the same whenever I'd swim. I would always feel great after swimming, my lungs would feel clear and then it clicked and I thought, wow, it's so closely linked and that would be the perfect challenge.

Then I had to decide what the challenge would be, and as I searched online, I discovered the 13 lake challenge (which is swimming 13 lakes in the Lake District) and I knew it would be perfect for me.

I had a look into all of the lakes, and when I researched Windermere, I realised that it was pretty long and I wasn’t sure if I could handle it. So, I reached out to someone who had successfully completed the challenge. He was very encouraging and reassured me that I could do it. Then I told my girlfriend, Frankie, and my mum, and they were both really supportive and thought it was a great idea.

Completing the challenge

I officially announced that I was going to do the challenge in March and then I started training. I trained for two full days a week. It was 16 hours a week of swimming, strength training, and cardiovascular exercise in the gym.

I swam some of the smaller lakes to help me to adjust to swimming in open water, because I hadn't experienced that before. I started the challenge in May, and the last lake was in September. The lakes got bigger as I went along, so I used each lake as training for the next one and this worked well for me.

The big lakes were more of a challenge, and to be honest I was quite nervous. I remember looking down the lakes as far as I could see, but I couldn’t see the end of it – some of them were huge! The hardest bit throughout was the swimming sessions, when I would swim by myself in the lead up to the big ones, and there was lots of early morning starts.

But in the end, I think because of the training and having such incredible backing from my friends, family, the Trust, and the wider public, it made the challenge feel a lot easier. It was tiring, but I never once thought I might stop, or have to give up.

I remember the last hour of my final swim. I had earphones in and was listening to a podcast, but I decided to take them out and just embrace it all. I stopped many times to try and take it all in. 

As I was approaching the end, I could see everyone and I could hear people shouting and I felt very emotional. It was a combination of happiness and joy from seeing everybody and having finally completed the challenge!

Another highlight was winning Charity Champion Of The Year at the North East Charity Awards. It was such an honour to be recognised and take home this award and to also be able to continue to raise awareness of CF.

My advice to anyone thinking about taking on a challenge

First of all, doing a fundraiser really shows how kind and generous people can be because they want to support the cause. I was able to share my story with lots of news outlets and on social media to spread awareness of CF. Whilst some people might donate money, the fundraiser has now raised over £20,000, which is amazing. It's also the encouraging messages that I received from everyone that made it so worthwhile for me. The achievement was fantastic, it was incredible to see the amount of people that it was able to reach and the impact it made, and I think everybody who can should take on a challenge!

My hopes for the future

The medicine, Kaftrio, has been life-changing for myself and the CF community, and it highlights how important it is to fund research into medicines that can help people living with CF. I hope that in the future there will be medicines that are available for everybody with cystic fibrosis, regardless of their mutation or gene type. 

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