We all know that exercise is good for us. It keeps our lungs and heart healthy and our weight within normal range. For people with cystic fibrosis, exercise is crucial. After decades of being too weak to exercise, people with CF are now stronger and living longer thanks to new treatments and therapies. Exercise among people with CF is on the rise and is even being handed out as a prescription from CF doctors. Still, some teens and young adults with CF need help getting into an exercise routine. The financial challenges and emotional struggles of living with CF make it difficult to begin a new exercise lifestyle. That’s where the Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation comes into play.
The CFLF is an organization dedicated to helping adolescents and young adults with CF build healthy and active lifestyles through recreation. The group believes that this is critical to the psychological, social and emotional well being of those with CF.
The organization was formed in 2003 by Brian Callanan, who himself lives with CF. Callanan had dedicated his life to helping people with CF deal with the same difficulties he has faced in his life. Through individualized recreation grants partnered with mentoring support, CFLF offers exercise as a supplemental airway clearance treatment, while the peer support helps youth with CF face the psychological and social struggles that effect their compliance with medications and treatments.
CFLF’s important work is helping people with CF live longer, healthier lives. Currently, only half of those with CF live to age 37.5. Callanan and CFLF are actively working to raise that life expectancy through fundraising, including Callanan’s 2000 mile bike ride from Canada to Key West which raised nearly $60,000 in 2006.