Plunge for the Cure, polar bear dash, helps fundraise for teen with cystic fibrosis
Denis Hamill
Tuesday, February 2nd 2010, 4:00 AM
Her name is Annie, she’s 13 and she needs help.
Annie McMahon suffers from cystic fibrosis, an insidious disease with no cure that causes thick, sticky mucus to form in the lungs and pancreas, triggering chronic infections.
She takes 30 pills a day – antibiotics, steroids, special fat-absorbing enzymes. She does two hours of nebulizer treatments a day. Every three months, she undergoes an intravenous drip four times a day for three weeks to battle this inherited disease that has given her a life expectancy of 37 years.
When Annie was first diagnosed 11 years ago, that life expectancy was 24.
So there’s steady progress. Every year, research and new drugs have added another year to Annie’s life expectancy. The hope is that by the time she’s 37, that number will have grown much higher. Or there might be a cure.
(more…)