WITH ONE BREATH

WITH ONE BREATH 2013

Q: What do you get when you put Cure Finders and Peacemakers in a room together?

A: $57,000 closer to finding a cure for cystic fibrosis (CF)!

We thank each and every one of you for supporting our WITH ONE BREATH event and making this our biggest and best year yet! Know that you are making a difference in many, many lives.

All smiles,

Paul, Jill, Paige & Brooke Christensen

Images courtesy of Eric Olson

Miss the event but still interested in helping 30,000 people in our nation fight CF? Click on Donate!

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO CF RESEARCH.

WITH ONE BREATH 2012

Betting on a Cure...

When Paige showed dramatic weight loss at a clinic visit in January, we were sent home with a blood glucose monitor to see if CF-related diabetes (CFRD) was the culprit. We were instructed to prick Paige’s finger 3 times a day for 3 days to see if her body needed insulin shots to help her grow.

To our surprise, our typically compliant Paige refused to stick out a finger! Brooke bravely showed big sister it was no big deal by offering up 2 fingers of her own, and Paul and I let Paige prick our fingers to her heart’s content...but to no avail. Day after day Paige sobbed, “I am afraid of needles. I don’t want to know if I have diabetes.”

Out of sheer desperation, I finally said, “Paige, you have a choice to make. You can choose to fight CF—which means you are going to have to do hard things—or you can choose not to fight. If you choose not to fight, CF will win.” After a minute of silence, Paige whispered, “Will you help me fight?” I solemnly nodded and said, “You have hundreds of people helping you fight.”

Paige saw about 500 of these helpers come together at our WITH ONE BREATH event at O’Gara’s this past March. To Timron Precision Gear, Walters Recycling and Refuse, and King Lumber Company, thank you for sponsoring our event and directly funding CF research dedicated to finding a cure for more than 30,000 people in our nation.

To all of you that donated an item, made a monetary donation, volunteered, played music, or attended our “new” event, thank you for showing Paige first hand she will never have to fight CF alone.

After 3 days of pokes and normal blood sugar readings, we discovered an untreated staph infection in Paige’s lungs was causing the weight loss; not CFRD. It only took a round of antibiotics to get her weight back on track. While her fear of needles remained, Paige stopped worrying about getting diabetes a few days after the event. While helping me count the $45,000 you generously donated for CF research, she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “Mom, I bet there will be a cure for CF soon.”

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the world’s leader in the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis (CF). They fund more CF research than any other organization, and nearly every CF drug available today was made possible because of Foundation support.

They are a nonprofit donor-supported organization dedicated to attacking cystic fibrosis from every angle. Their focus is to support the development of new drugs to fight the disease, improve the quality of life for those with CF, and ultimately to find a cure.

The Foundation's drug development model has been recognized by Harvard Business School and by publications such as Forbes, The New Yorker, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Based in Bethesda, MD, the Foundation funds and accredits a national care center network that has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a model of care for a chronic disease.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is one of the most efficient organizations of its kind and is an accredited charity of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance.

The latest game-changing medication the Foundation received FDA approval for is Kalydeco. This is the first drug that actually targets the defective gene, called CFTR.

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Cystic Fibrosis Foundation - Adding Tomorrows

The FDA recently approved Kalydeco, the first drug to address the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis for a small segment of the CF population. Meet an adult who is benefiting from this groundbreaking...

WITH ONE BREATH has donated more than $300,000 dollars to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the past 7 years. Thanks to you, the Foundation has been able to fund several exciting research projects that are bringing us one step closer to finding a cure!