Those of you who know me will know that my daughter Erin has Cystic Fibrosis which gives her a bad chest now and again. Those of you who know me well know that this isn't even a fraction of the whole story. On a good day Erin has to have two 20 minute physio sessions followed by breathing exercises, 5 nebulisers, inhalers, long-term antibiotics, vitamins, she has to take enzyme tablets before she can eat because she can't digest fat - 20-25 tablets a day - and at the end of the day she's plugged in to a feed pump and fed through a hole in her stomach because she simply can't manage to eat the amount needed to keep her healthy. As I said, this is on a good day. On a bad day, even with extra physio she struggles to catch her breath and when she does it chokes her. She has to stay in hospital for a two week course of intensive treatment every 10-12 weeks that makes her sick and so ill she cannot get out of bed and has to have so many intravenous antibiotics that she has had a permanent central line implanted in her shoulder called a portacath. Two parts of her small lungs have already collapsed & her lung function is at 55% when she's at her most well. She has recently grown a particularly nasty bacteria in her lungs that may never go away and has made her ineligible for a lung transplant, which would've given her a second chance at life when her own lungs eventually give up. The average life expectancy of a CF fighter is around 34 but unfortunately erin will be lucky to reach half that age without a cure. Yet she never complains about any of this. There are people all over the world who have CF much worse than Erin, babies, children, teenagers, young adults dying for breath.  No parent should have to watch their child grow knowing they will be planning their funeral one day, and no child should have to go through the things that Erin and thousands of others do on a daily basis.

Right, that's the guilt trip out of the way!  A cure for this horrible life-shortening illness is out there somewhere but research and treatment costs money. Be a part of something big, donate whatever you can, even if it's just £1 and make CF stand for Cure Found. All money raised will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

Thank you

xx