Did you know that it’s already March??? I can’t believe how fast Great Strides is coming up. There are only two months left to raise money and get signed up to stride. If you are looking for a walk near you to participate in, sign up and start fundraising. Great Strides raises money to help fund research to add tomorrows to those affected by Cystic Fibrosis. This includes research to find medication that better improves the health of Cystic Fibrosis patients, better quality of life, and of course research for a cure. Even throughout my lifetime, research in Cystic Fibrosis has grown and progressed so much that the life expectancy has almost doubled! Isn’t it crazy that we can have that much power to improve the lives of others!? If you can’t walk, I strongly encourage you to still donate. Medical advancements are making such progress and your donations could really change lives. You can either donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation directly or to my team: Wendy’s Walkers (which I would GREATLY appreciate).
My family and I have been participating in the Great Strides walk for as long as I can remember. It is something that I look forward to every year. There have been a couple of years that I wasn’t able to participate because of guidelines to help protect the spread of germs. CF patients have bugs in their lungs that are very contagious among other CF patients. So of course a gathering of CF supporters is going to include a lot of CFers. I had a bug in my lungs during those couple of years that was a particularly stubborn bug. So the Great Strides had asked anyone with that bug to please refrain from participating in the walk. I still raised money and supported the cause, but we just skipped the actual walk. Now I have somehow kicked the bug, and the Great Strides organization has come up with creative ways to help CFers protect themselves from the spreading of bugs. One of the cool ways is that all CFers are give a lei at check-in to wear during the event. This makes CFers easy to identify, which prevents CFers from accidentally coming in contact with one another. This is incredibly helpful because Cystic Fibrosis is an invisible disease, meaning that most CFers just look like every other normal heathy human being. I am SO incredibly happy that I able to participate again! It is so fun to get together with a bunch of people who are all fighting for the same cause, walk together, and have a grand ol’ time. If you have never participated in a walk before, here is how it goes: You get there and check your team in. We like to get our t-shirts (which I believe you have to raise $100 to receive) and get ready to walk. Then everyone walks the walk. Afterwards, there is basically a giant picnic. There is food for everyone and then you find a place to sit to watch the festivities. This includes announcements celebrating how much money everyone raised, which team raised the most money, and other stuff like that. There is also usually live music and fun stuff like that.
I stride because I want to take an active approach to improving the quality of my life. I obviously have control over doing my treatments, but I also want to contribute to further research and medical advances. I think it’s incredible how far we have come in the last 20 years that, which is all the proof that we need as to how important this fundraising is. The walk is just the fun celebration for our accomplishments. It is so great to get together with friends and family to celebrate these accomplishments each year. I want to be able to achieve my dreams and have the freedom to do what I want with my life. Right now I feel like my body is trying to trap me. So far it has been unsuccessful because I am a very ambitious and stubborn character. I am starting to accept that one day it will catch up with me. There are already little things that I have had to change about my life, or that have just adapted to the way they are, that aren’t huge. Someday those will turn into huge things, though. I have also had to watch friends with CF pass away or struggle severely, and it’s difficult… especially knowing exactly what they are going through.
I want to travel the world and uncover the wonders that it holds. I want to experience the culture of other places, not just look at them through my computer screen. I want to be able to support myself. I want to rely on the people around me to be a choice, not a necessity. I want to be able to have children some day. I want to run around with them and watch them grow. I want to dream big and not be scared that my lack of energy will get in the way. These are just a few reasons why I stride.
If we have the power to improve those lives by funding research, why wouldn’t we? Think of the absolutely minor spending you would have to give up to donate just $10 to research.. That’s only giving up that specialty coffee or fast food for TWO days to help give someone a lifetime. So let’s just do it. Donate, walk, give support, spread awareness. Please.
