Come take great strides with us for CF

Walt Wilson

Published Wednesday, September 9, 2009

A Great Strides 10K Walk benefitting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will be this Saturday at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Natchez beginning at 8:30 a.m. This year’s walk is being sponsored by Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Respiratory Care Practitioner Program.

I began my career as a respiratory therapist in 1981, and one of my favorite patients was a young teenage girl named Toni who had CF. She required frequent hospitalizations toward the end of her short life.

She taught me a lot about her disease, and how to do respiratory therapy correctly. Needless to say, everyone involved in Toni’s care loved her, and we were amazed at how she handled her chronic disease with a smile. She lost her battle a few years later. At that time, it was rare for a child who had CF to live past his/her teens.

Today, patients with CF live much longer, because of the advances in technology, medications and procedures discovered through the research sponsored by the CF Foundation.

Although these advances have prolonged many lives, we continue losing many children and young adults to this disease.

Walkers and sponsors are needed! Every day, approximately three babies are born with CF in this country, and every day at least one person with CF dies.

Your help is urgently needed to ensure that the rapid pace of CF research continues. The cost of this research continues to escalate as sophisticated, new technology must be developed to save these precious lives.

Contact me at 601-446-1161 or by e-mail walt.wilson@colin.edu , if you would like to participate or sponsor a walker.

Walt Wilson is the program director for Co-Lin’s Respiratory Care Practitioner Program and a Natchez Resident.