This last Saturday, Travis and I attended the Cystic Fibrosis Gala. I was so pleased to be able to be in the audience. Travis and I have either volunteered or attended the event for over a decade. But sadly, last year we were not involved. Although, I’m not sad for the reason of missing out on the event. I had just received my double lung transplant a couple months prior. My body was too immunosuppressed to be around a large audience considering seven hundred and fifty people are in the crowd.

It is amazing to spend five hours with this group of individuals that collectively have the same thing on their mind…a better life for those that suffer from this disease and to one day find a cure so that CF stands for “cure found”. Spending the evening at the Hyatt downtown and to be part of the dynamic energy in the ballroom is incredible.

A couple of highlights of the live auction items were, a one day fishing excursion on Lake Minnetonka, sold for $30,000! Or, the LynLake Brewery donated an item where you get to brew your own beer with the brewmaster, name your beer, have a party for over one hundred people, and the brewery adds it to their tap list for sale to customers. That item sold for $15,000! And then they ended up donating a second one for another $15,000! During the bid for a cure portion of the night, someone raised their hand and donated $50,000!

With a silent and live auction, touching stories, and an abundance of giving people, the Minnesota/Dakotas chapter of the CF Foundation raised over $860,00!!! All this money is going to research to help those living, struggling, and suffering from this awful disease.

There was a couple of very touching videos but what hit my heart the most was when the nine year old boy and his seven year old sister spoke. They spoke so eloquently about both of them living with CF. They spoke about the heartaches they deal with. For instance, the little girl watching her friends swimming behind the glass because she gets sick when she enters the pool because her lungs can’t handle the smell of the chemicals. They spoke about the difficulty of their daily regimen. He spoke about his dream of becoming a baseball player.

At one point they showed a video of the brother doing a treatment. It broke my heart. He was crying his eyes out because he hates CF so much and hates how he has to be attached to the vest machine for hours every day. It was hard to hear such young children cough like I used to before my transplant. So many dealing with this diagnosis still don’t even make it to their teenage years. It is still a children’s disease.

Here is a video I had posted a long time ago doing my vest treatment.

I no longer have to be attached to this machine. It is a reminder how lucky I am. First of all, I lived into my thirties before I needed new lungs. Now, I have this second chance of life with my new pretty pink lungs.

Please, tomorrow be extra thankful for what we are blessed to have. The gift of life. Remember those that are no longer with us. Have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving.