Hi Guys & Girls,

I’m running the Warrior Adrenaline Race for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust this year.

My best friend’s daughter Lucy aged 7 has Cystic fibrosis which is a life-shortening inherited disease caused by a faulty gene.

A day in the life of Lucy

When Lucy wakes up she needs to take 10 tablets all needed to help and try to keep her well . She then takes a nebuliser to help loosen up all the mucus in her lungs this takes about 15 minutes she then will have her breakfast she takes more tablets with breakfast to help her absorb the fat in her food and then gets dressed after an hour or so the nebuliser will have had chance to work and we will then start physio. This involves have Lucy laid on a reclined bed ( head pointing down towards floor ) and patting her chest , back and sides to loosen all the mucus we also do 30 lots of acapellas ( a device she blows into which vibrates her chest and again helps to loosen the mucus this takes around 40 minutes. She needs to do lots of coughing and huffing and breathing exercises to try to bring up all the mucus which is exhausting for her at times. Once we think her chest is sounding clear she then had another nebuliser of antibiotics, a couple more tablets and then off to school. She has a normal school day apart from taking tablets every time she eats. Night time routine is pretty much the same as the morning physio nebulisers and more tablets. On top of all her treatment she does lots of activities to keep her fit and lungs healthy including swimming, trampolining , rock climbing and dancing. Lucy needs a really high calorie diet but like most people with cystic fibrosis doesn't have much of an appetite so is a constant battle trying to get her to eat up and a struggle to maintain her weight. She has 5 build up drinks a day to help her with this. All this is Lucy's daily life when well. Lucy was in hospital last week for 2 weeks of intravenous antibiotics due to growing a nasty bug in her lungs. This involves being sedated to get the long line in intravenously, having I.V antibiotics twice daily at 7 am and 7pm plus lots of extra physio on her chest it's very tiring and very time consuming taking hours out of her day. The I.V antibiotics gave her really bad stomach causing lots of accidents as she was coughing so much. She was also being sick lots through so much coughing. She needs blood taking 3 times to check the levels of antibiotics in her blood as are very strong and can cause lots of problems including deafness. She got a temperature whilst in hospital they were concerned her I.V line might be infected so went through whole process of taking old one out and putting a new one in which is not a pleasant experience for anyone. This is a brief insight into Lucy's life it's a lot for anyone to go through let alone a 7 year old which is why we need a cure so much.

So any donations would be greatly appreciated towards such a worthy cause.

https://www.justgiving.com/ross-a-j-turner

or by texting WARS82 £5 to 70070. And don’t forget to claim Gift Aid to increase your donation by 25%.

Cheers

(Otherwise I’ll just pester you for the next couple of weeks until you do!!!)