Karen Engel

Hello Friends!

Thanks to Great Strides, my niece, Rose, has made so many absolutely amazing great strides over the years, but, there is still work to be done to find a cure!

She is determined to continue raising Cystic Fibrosis (CF) awareness for all those that are still suffering and not able to benefit from new treatments like she has due to genetics and various CF mutations. 

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is dedicated to attacking CF from every angle: supporting new drug development, improving quality of life, and—ultimately—finding a cure for this horrible and eventually suffocating disease.

The money we raise is aggressively put to work! Work that Rose has been a fortunate beneficiary of and a brave participant for in six clinical trials starting when she was just 7-years-old: digestive enzymes to help her extract nutrition from food, Pulmozyme and Hypertonic Saline to thin sticky mucous in her lungs, TOBI to fight tough airway bacteria, and now the breakthrough triple-combination drug Trikafta that is changing lives for so many. Some older, sicker patients on Trikafta have seen their lung function increase from only 30-50% lung capacity to 70-90%!

Look at the CF Foundation’s latest patient data showing that Trikafta is helping:

56 is the current median life expectancy. Up from 37 when Rose was born.

32 people with CF needed a lung transplant in 2022, compared to 250 needing one on average in previous years.

We were so happy Rose could start taking Trikafta in January of 2020! We are hoping that by starting it young before her health starts to decline, she can maintain her 100% lung function longer and won’t have to face what these older patients in their 20s and 30s have faced. She is also still loving her new life, free of the g-tube she had from the ages of 1 ½ to 13, a freedom I doubt she will ever tire of.  And now therapy just once a day, plus, no extended hospital stays for lung infection in years. 

Her dreams are truly being realized and her future shines brighter BECAUSE OF YOU! Thank you so much for your continued support!

Please help support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation by making a tax-deductible online donation by selecting the "Donate to Karen" button above.   Please ask your employer if they provide matching funds. To my former Baxter colleagues, Baxter will match your donation.

Thank you so much! 
Karen