Niki & Nick's Marathon for Oli: Running for Breath.

Meet Oli: a cute, charming (he loves the ladies!) chatterbox. Like your typical 7-year-old, Oli loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, superheroes, (talking – like his Mum :P), lego, and his Mum and Dad.

Unlike your typical child, Oli has an incurable, life-threatening disorder – Cystic Fibrosis (CF). This disorder affects a number of organs in Oli’s body, especially his lungs and pancreas, by clogging them with thick, sticky mucus. In his lungs, this can cause shortness of breath, a chronic cough and repeated chest infections.

Despite these serious issues, Oli is a super active kid; he takes part in his local Nippers group, surfing, karate and running.

There is no cure for Cystic Fibrosis, but there is physio, breathing exercises, medication, special nutrition and infection prevention measures to reduce Oli’s suffering and prolong his life – all of which take up a considerable amount of time for Oli and his family.

Now, meet Veronica (Vero) and Glenn – Oli’s Mum and Dad. All of the special care, doctors visits, hospital stays and trips to Starship from their home in Tauranga mean that Vero cannot work full-time – and all of those things cost money… a lot of money. As do the trips and activities Vero and Glenn plan for Oli so he has lots of fun experiences (we won’t talk about life expectancy for CF sufferers, but you can Google it).

There is no cure for Cystic Fibrosis, but there is quality of life.

And that’s why we, Nick and Niki Walsh (Niki isVero’s friend and workmate) are running the Buller Marathon on February 10th 2018 – to raise money to contribute in a small way so Oli can live the kind of life his parent’s hope for, to raise awareness of Cystic Fibrosis, a life threatening disorder with no cure that is taking breath from Kiwis who should be in their prime.

We know money is tight for a lot of people, so if you can’t donate please consider this: become an organ donor. When you leave this life, you won’t need your lungs – but CF sufferers like Oli will. It’s a simple decision and easy to implement, and a lung transplant can literally save a life.

There is no cure for Cystic Fibrosis. Aside from the ‘usual’ uncomfortable, scary and sometimes painful symptoms of CF, this is what Oli has to live with:

• Susceptibility to infections: Oli can’t share food or utensils, his surroundings must be clean (when they go away, Vero checks in early to sterilise their accommodation so Oli doesn’t get sick).

• Malnutrition: due to pancreas damage, Oli’s body doesn’t absorb nutrients properly so he struggles to gain weight. He requires a specialised high-fat diet.

Plus additional tasks/costs for Vero and Glenn:

• Daily: Set aside pills and other medication for the day and apportion into school lunch, sterilise nebuliser equipment, 2 x 25 minute physiotherapy sessions, percussion and nebuliser, continual sanitisation (personal and household).

• Weekly: ensuring supply of medication and equipment. Ensuring household shopping includes extra cleaning sanitising and disinfectant items. Extra protein and fat for Oli's dietary requirements. Rigorous house cleaning.

• Extra expenses for special food requirements supplements and probiotics, cleaning sanitising products, health and fitness programmes.

#Breath4CF #MayTheWaveHealUsAll #SixtyFiveRoses