The fourth annual Great Strides 5K Walk benefitting the Mississippi Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will be Saturday at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Natchez.

Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m., and the walk will start at 9 a.m. Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Respiratory Care Technology Program, Dianne’s Frame Shop & Gifts and Taco Bell are sponsoring this year’s event.

Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States. Although there is no cure, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s innovative approach to research has discovered CF therapies.

In 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved the breakthrough therapy of ivacaftor (Kalydeco).

Most medications for cystic fibrosis are focused on treating the symptoms of the disease. Ivacaftor counters the effect of one specific genetic mutation. According to the FDA, the use of the drug resulted in “significant and sustained improvement in lung function.”

The use of the drug has greatly improved the quality of life for people with CF, because respiratory issues associated with the disease causes the most day-to-day limitations.

Today, people with CF have a life expectancy of approximately 37 years, because of the advances in technologies, medications and procedures discovered through the research sponsored by the CF Foundation.

Although these advances have resulted in longer and healthier lives for people with CF, 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 technologies and therapies must be developed to save these precious lives.

Contact me at 601-446-1277 or by e-mail walt.wilson@colin.edu, if you would like to participate, sponsor a walker or make a donation.

 

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