On the fabulous Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation website, CF blogger Brian Callanan has issued a call to action.
He wants to hear from all of you whether you are reactive or proactive in living with CF.
Brian is an awesome, 39-year-old athlete, founder, and executive director of the CFLF. In 2006, he bicycled from Canada all the way down to Key West, USA—more than 2,000 miles! People tried to tell him he couldn’t do it, but Brian believed in himself.
This particular blog post (you can read it here) has so many inspiring sentiments, but there’s one line I absolutely love:
“Stubbornness is possibly a common trait of people surviving CF. Without it, we may subscribe to the expectations of others, who may not even know us, or what we as individuals are capable of.”
Those of us living with life-threatening illnesses can literally choose to live or die by the statistics of our disease. Choose to live and you choose to believe that you are a unique individual with the free will needed to do everything you can to maintain your health. You are not a “life expectancy.”
Choose to die by statistics and you accept fatalism. Brian’s post was spawned in reaction to a Facebook comment in which a 29-year-old joked (we hope) that because the life expectancy of people with CF is 31, it left her two more years to party.
It’s an excellent read—one you definitely shouldn’t miss!
This month, PatientWorthy is teaming up with CysticLife.org to spread awareness of CF and support their collaboration with the Mayo Clinic for a community-driven research project investigating the benefits of exercise for CF patients. If you’re interested in contributing to the fund or want to become a CysticLife member, drop by CysticLife.org or donate here today! Don’t forget to share this post!
