Your money…making a difference

I received this from the guys at the Vancouver CCFF today and I thought it well worth posting here so that you can know that there are real and tangible advance being made in CF providing very real hope for people every day. 

Your sponsorship helps directly to make a difference and continue this positive trend. 

You are making a difference by sponsoring me so thank you!

Making a Difference

The work being done by the Foundation and Chapter volunteers is funding important research that’s making a very real difference in CF treatment. The progress made over the past four decades speaks for itself.

• 1960 Life expectancy for children with CF is four years of age.

• 1979 Only 13% of CF patients registered at clinics are adults.

• 1989 Canadian scientists discover the defective gene responsible for CF.

• 1995 The median age of survival for a person with CF is now 31 years of age.

• 2000 Over 45% of all Canadians with CF were 18 years, or older. Cystic fibrosis is no longer only a children’s disease.

• 2003 Median age of survival reaches 35.9 years of age.

• 2004 Median age of survival reaches 37 years of age.

Researchers have identified over 1000 mutations of the gene responsible for CF and are now researching other genes which may be additional modifiers for how the body handles CF.

Great website – cfvancouver

This is a great website: the Vancouver and Lower Mainland Chapter of the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  These are the guys who are doing a great job organising GearUp4CF ride and this website has lots of useful links on it both for people with CF and also they have a very useful page containing links to CF research news, which is handy to me!!

So do you know someone who’s life is affected by CF?

As I say in the information page about CF , this condition is distressingly common in countries such as Canada, the US and the UK.  

Just in case anyone is thinking that they don’t know anyone who’s life is affected by CF, then I can tell all the Brits reading this (that is what us guys are referred to as in Canada!), that in fact you do.  Only if you have had your head buried in the sand for the last 10 years would you not know that Gordon Brown is the Chancellor of the Exchequer and quite possibly the next Prime Minister of Great Britain after Tony Blair steps down.  What you may not know is that last year he and his wife Sarah found out that their son has CF.

You can read about that here.