CF News
CLIMBING KILIMANJARO
Leanna Harper, a 24 year old woman with CF who lives in Scotland will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in October to raise money to fund research into a cure. Leanne said: 'Most people have heard of the condition cystic fibrosis with the publicity from the ex UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's son suffering from the condition. However, it is still not as widely understood as it should be so I am aiming to not only raise money required to help fund the research into a cure, but also to increase the awareness of my condition.'
Leanne is the oldest of 20 Islanders (Isle of Man) with the inherited heart and lung, life threatening condition. Leanne will spend two weeks before the eight day trek up the world's largest freestanding mountain at Broadgreen Hospital, in Liverpool, to ensure her body is free from infection. She aims to raise £7,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. To sponsor Leanne donate online at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ManxiestoClimbKilimanjaroforCF.
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CF WEIGHTLIFTER MAKES HISTORY
Twenty-three year old Jonny Simpson made history when he became Europe’s first ever Cystic Fibrosis sufferer to enter a major bodybuilding competition. The British weightlifter entered the National Athletics Corporation Bodybuilding Championship final in Manchester, after a passion for bodybuilding turned him into a muscleman.
He took his place alongside 15 other first time competitors as he is put through his paces by a strict panel of judges. Jonny's plans were nearly derailed with his American girlfriend, Miranda Hutson, who also suffers from CF, needed a double lung transplant. Jonny flew to be by her side and continued to train at American gyms. Jonny plans on entering another competition in October. Nearly 8,500 people in the UK suffer from CF; there are nearly 30,000 with CF in America.
A SPECIAL VIDEO GAME FOR CF PATIENTS
Dr. Peter Bingham, a pediatric neurologist, wanted to combine PFTs and treatments with the fun and stress relief of video games. His collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation led to the development of two such games for people with CF. Players use a laptop connected to a spirometer to play "Creep Frontier" where the object is to move the obstructive and dangerous purple slime out of the way using a breathing technique. Another game is also a breath biofeedback game where the player uses their breath to refill the gas tank of a car that navigates through a race course. The games purposely avoided "clinical theme" to be used as a fun activity instead of a treatment procedure.
Read the abstract in Clinical Pediatrics: A Breath Biofeedback Computer Game for Children With Cystic Fibrosis. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2010 Apr;49(4):337-42. Epub 2010 Jan 28.
