Wear Yellow Day is coming! Here’s how your support makes a difference
It can help us continue to be there for people with CF and their families during periods of financial stress
Rita* first contacted our Helpline for support when her daughter, Asra*, who has CF, was three years old. Rita said: “I lived in a house with 15 other people and there were sewage, flies, maggots, fleas and dead rats constantly in our living environment. Asra developed a skin condition due to the excess humidity and dampness in the room and a very dry cough… she was also always vomiting from tummy bugs she would pick up.”
The Trust supported Rita with an emergency grant, as well as information and emotional support, and eventually, she and Asra were rehoused in a flat which was clean and suitable.
“Cystic Fibrosis Trust went out of their way to contact support services and the council… and provided support for me during the whole ordeal constantly calling me to see if I was ok,” Rita said. “I would not be where I am today without the Trust.”
£150 could fund one of our emergency grants, which supports people with cystic fibrosis of any age when they are in immediate financial need.
It can help scientists to develop new treatments for everyone with CF
Thanks to your incredible support, we’re able to stay at the cutting edge of CF research, making ground-breaking discoveries that change lives for the better.
£450 could pay for a day’s worth of essential laboratory materials at a Strategic Research Centre like Dr Mike Gray’s at the University of Newcastle. The research is focusing on designing compounds that could be CF medicines of the future for those with rare CFTR mutations who are not able to benefit from modulator medicines.
It can help young people to connect with others who know what they are going through
In 23/24, Building Brighter Futures, our programme for 6–14-year-olds with CF and their siblings, saw 88 children attending 32 courses and one-off events, including baking sessions, resilience workshops, and exploding science experiments!
Our Youth Advisory Group (YAG), made up of 14–25-year-olds with CF or loved ones with CF, held 17 meetings this year and worked on some exciting projects, including a new CF dictionary for young people affected by CF.
“I think it’s really important that we’re able to connect online with the people we relate to most, as we can’t meet in person due to cross-infection and this can get incredibly isolating. So, it’s great that we can just have a chat and a catch-up as well as working on upcoming projects,” says Tilly, who’s a member of YAG and has CF.
Supporting even more people with CF through our Helpline
Last year, we handled over 4,500 enquiries to our busy Helpline across phone, email, WhatsApp and social media. It is available to anyone looking for information or support with any aspect of cystic fibrosis, a listening ear, or just to talk things through. £25 could run our Helpline for an hour, making sure people with CF, and their loved ones, have somewhere to turn for information and support when they need it most.
Empowering parents of children with CF
CF Connect is our peer support service for parents of children with CF. In 23/24 we trained a new group of parent volunteers, who’ll provide invaluable support to other parents like them. Recently we put Helena, a parent of a young baby with CF, in touch with one of our trained parent volunteers. Helena had been through a difficult time, figuring out her new routine and keeping her baby well – she had questions about the future. Helena found solace in talking to one of our trained volunteers who had been there herself, and understood her worries. We provided a safe, non-judgemental space for Helena to get things off her chest and talk her concerns through.
Wear yellow. Raise money. Change the future.
There are endless ways to get fundraising this Wear Yellow Day. Host a bake sale, organise a walk, or even take on a new challenge, it's up to you! The more creative the better. Just remember, whatever you do, do it in yellow!
By fundraising for us this Wear Yellow Day, you will be helping to fund life-changing research and support the 11,000+ people in the UK living with CF.