Mitchell Landheer

It’s that time of the year again where the Landheer and Workman family gear up for the annual Great Strides Walk to Cure Cystic Fibrosis!

As most of you know, Mitchell and Jessi both have a disease called Cystic Fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease for which there is not a cure. This disease affects our lungs, digestion, and life expectancy. Mitchell (29) and Jessi (34) were diagnosed 28 years ago, and each and every day we commit our lives to fighting this disease. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has led the way in the fight against CF and fueled extraordinary medical and scientific progress. Working alongside the CF community, the CF Foundation has helped advance the development of more than a dozen CF treatments, and added decades of life for those with CF.  Thanks to this work, the life expectancy of someone born with CF has doubled in the last 30 years. Our goal is still to help find a cure for this disease, so that CF will not stand for “Cystic Fibrosis” but “cure found”!

Jessi continues to work as a Volunteer Coordinator for Spectrum Health Hospice. Jessi is thankful that she continues to be able to reduce the amount of breathing treatments while still maintaining a strong lung function!

Mitchell stepped into a new career venture and left BDO, and now started a new accounting job at AirLife in Grand Rapids. He continues to sit on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Board for the NW Ohio-Michigan Chapter as their Outreach Chair.

Jessi and Mitchell both have been blessed with an extremely healthy year and have been able to continue with their scaled back treatment regimen thanks to all of the medication advancements in the last few years.

For 68 years, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has been striving toward their mission to cure cystic fibrosis and raise awareness for this rare, genetic, life-shortening disease that makes it difficult to breathe and adds hours of daily therapies to maintain a normal life. Nearly every approved CF drug therapy available now has been made possible because of the Foundation and its supporters. It’s inspiring to think back 28 years ago when Mitchell and Jessi were first diagnosed to see how much progress has been made in the daily therapies and medication they take. Four and a half years ago, a new drug came out, called Trikafta. Mitchell and Jessi have both been taking this medication since January 2020 and the results from this therapy cannot even be expressed through words. Both of their lung functions continue to improve dramatically, they have seen some of their symptoms disappear, and their strict treatment regime has been reduced to a much more manageable schedule. This new drug has literally changed the trajectory of their disease and their life. We thank all of the support we receive year to year, but we truly mean it when we say that to see this drug work miracles before our eyes would not be possible without the donations, prayers, and support from each of you every single year.  

Love,

Mitchell and Jessi

(And of course, the rest of our tribe: Dave & Pam, Ben & Malory, Katelyn, Nathan & Mya, Jon, Anita and Jayden)