Lisa's Fund - a breath for Cystic Fibrosis

My name is Lisa and every day I wake up with Cystic Fibrosis.
(Lisa is the founder and face of Lisa's fund - a breath for Cystic Fibrosis)

As a child growing up in the late 60’s my family was told that I would not live past six years of age. Well as destiny has it, I did. Then we were told fourteen years would be my next milestone and so on.

Today, I am 55 years old, beating the 2020 median of 50.9 years life expectancy set by CFCanada.  I am still enjoying life and still going strong.

I realize how fortunate I am to have reached these milestones and I thank GOD for this every single day. With the help of Cystic Fibrosis Canada I continue to have hope of maintaining a high quality of life for many more years to come.

What it’s like to live with Cystic Fibrosis? In order to understand how it feels to live with CF. Please take the time to try the following:

All you will need is a normal drinking straw. Go about your day's activities breathing only through the straw. Do not inhale or exhale through your nose only through the straw. This is a small demonstration of how it feels to live each day with Cystic Fibrosis.

I realize that the focus in the media continues to be the effects CF has on children. Some time ago, I was also a sick child and I have seen some of my closest friends die from this terrible disease however, many of us do make it to adulthood and we prosper. We need to hear more of these wonderful stories. Every Cystic Fibrosis patient suffers with CF but not every child dies from CF. Let’s celebrate life when we can. Shall we?

Being someone who lives with CF I wish to bring awareness of this disease from a different perspective. I want to promote a positive, inspiring image to anyone like me. We must celebrate the accomplishments made to date by Cystic Fibrosis Canada and we must be pleased with how far we have come since the 60s when I was a child.

I prefer to be a role model who may one day inspire a young individual to achieve his or her potential in particular when the more difficult days make this seem so impossible to them. To do this I choose to focus on how much the research has benefited CF patients over the years.

Now, I oversee the operations of our businesses and I am very proud of what I have been able to accomplish so far. But it’s not enough. I want to use this as a vehicle to promote “well being” for individuals with CF. I will achieve this goal. It began years ago with a golf charity event called "the Pearl" Golf Classic for Women.

We raised thousands of dollars over the years and the funds have assisted patients with:

• The purchase of a compressor for a single mom who needed financial help
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• The purchase of a laptop computer used by student patients who are admitted in hospital so that they can keep up with their school work while getting their treatments
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• The payments for TV and phone service for young patients during their stay in hospital because they could not afford to pay out of pocket
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• The payments for parking for another patient to attend the clinic.