Columbus, OH 43229
October 14, 2002
Cystic Fibrosis Update - Bowl-For-Breath Fund-Raiser Ends November 11, 2002
Dear Friends,
Fall brings many predictable changes - the weather, the fall foliage, and the CF Bowl-for-Breath. This year's family bowler is daughter-in-law Misty on Sunday, November 3.
CF Family Update:
Derik - at 24, Chef D is busy cooking and managing (he was recently promoted to kitchen manager) at a small French cafe in Columbus, baking yummy apple treats, and sharing year number 3 of married life with Misty. To his busy day are also added medications, postural drainage, clinic appointments, and this past year, a 2-week round of IV antibiotics.
Brent - It has been 24 years since Brent's diagnosis with CF (the year Derik was born and diagnosed with CF). At 27, he lives each day to the fullest - engineering, playing in and managing a band, sports, friends - the things a 27-year old does. But he also has medications, doctors appointments, and postural drainage added to his schedule.
CF Research:
Just like life, research has it's ups and downs. In the early nineties, we were excited by the identification of the gene which caused CF and the tentative promise of a cure within 10 years. In the mid to late nineties, our sons participated in clinical trials for a virus carrying the corrected CF gene to the lungs. While this did produce the effect of correcting the CF defect, a undesirable side-effect included an inflammatory response in the lungs. We still don't have the hoped-for "cure", but a team of Cleveland researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Copernicus Therapeutics, Inc., has started human trials of a new form of therapy called PLASminTM compaction which produces particles of DNA small enough to enter the nuclei of cells. While aerosol use of this therapy could ultimately help correct the gene defect in the "healthy" parts of the CF lung, intravenous therapy could target damaged portions of the lung (unreachable by aerosol) as well as other organs affected by CF, such as the pancreas and sweat glands.
Despite setbacks, we continue to "reach for the stars" for all those with CF: the newly diagnosed infant, the 5 year-old off to kindergarten, the teenager struggling with the whys and hows, the college student away from home demonstrating his/her responsibility and independence, and our own adult sons. Help bring the "stars" within our reach with your tax deductible contribution to the "Cystic Fibrosis Foundation" to support CF research. We hope you can respond by November 11, 2002.
With MUCH Love and Thanks,
Jim, Linda, Brent, Derik and Misty