My Xtreme Hike Story

Thanks for checking in on my personal page under the Team Caroline banner! If you've made it this far, I hope you'll join me as part of Team Caroline, or at least make a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Every step, every dollar, counts.

When Caroline was born and diagnosed with CF 13 years ago, there was literally no therapy except salt water to thin mucus and advil to control inflammation. Fast forward to today, we have solid therapies, more antibiotics, and more knowledge - most notably, we have a miracle drug called Trikafta that partially corrects her defective cell function. But we still do not have a cure. 

Why is a cure for CF important? Well, it's actually possible. So why not GO FOR IT? Have you ever had a dream that something was impossible only to eventually learn it maybe was possible? Didn't you go after that like nothing else? We have and we are because she dreams of space and going up to the ISS or Mars and she doesn't want CF to stand in her way.  

It's simple. Money buys research and research finds the cure for CF. Without generous donations from people, there is no funding as CF is an orphan disease and not funded by federal dollars. If you know someone with another chronic lung disease - COPD, chronic bronchitis, then you've seen CF research benefit them too because CF research has found and fueled therapies that work for them.

There are approximately 30,000 people in the US with Cystic Fibrosis, 30 miles allows us to do 1 mile for every 1,000 people. 30.1 miles. But that .1 - that's for the person you hike for. It's the last mile, it's the "almost to the finish line and my body is screaming" - but at that point, you can't give up, you have to push on. You have to keep going, you have to get to the finish line. We are so close and the hike is an analogy for the disease. We have to get this cure across the finish line and we need all the help to do it.

For our family, the CF Foundation has come to mean so much. The research, care centers, and an increasingly efficacious set of treatments and therapies, driven by fundraising, have been critical and life giving. But equally important has been the community we have found within the Foundation broadly, and within the Hike family specifically, that has helped sustain us in our darkest days and through the ups and downs of CF. We wouldn't be where we are without them, and without you!

Please take this opportunity to join us on the trail and be a part of the Cure for CF for Caroline - when she's in space looking down on us, you'll know you made an impossible dream possible! 

With heartfelt gratitude,

Joe, Rebecca, Baker & Caroline