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i £3 {5 id i i th i H { CF Radiothon April 6th Michelle Breakwell was an inspiration to CF by Bill Robinson Two months after I met Michelle Breakwell in 1982, I stood with her parents in the corridor of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, listening to .the doctors tell us that Michelle had only minutes to live. Her parents asked me to come into the room with them for those last - moments and I found myself holding a 17 year old girl who was dying from Cystic Fibrosis. But as the newspapers reported a couple of months later, 'Michelle Breakwell tasted her own death and came back." Two hours after I had walked into the room and found a young girl gasp- ing for breath and pleading to die, I sat beside the same girl as she talked about-univer- sity, wondering if she should complete her BA or switch to Law after two years! Reflecting back and having learned more about Michelle, her amazing recovery that summer day should not have surprised me. From the time she was diagnosed at the age of two, after she had become very ill and col- lapsed, Michelle battled Cystic Fibrosis every day for the rest of her life. In spite of constant in- fections and the time-. consuming treatments necessary to keep her -and all Cystic Fibrosis kids alive, the vibrant, blonde-haired teenager with the twinkling blue eyes became a com- petitive high school swimmer and an Ontario scholar. She graduated from high school in 1982 with an 82 per cent average -- marks achieved even though she had missed almost three months of classes during her last year of school. Accepted at McMaster University in Hamilton for the fall of 1982, Michelle was forced to withdraw after com- pleting only one week of classes when an infection caused by the disease put her back in hospital. She never returned to school. Michelle lived another ten months. When she The smile of a fighter! Michelle Breakwell, inspiration for the Kinsmen/Cystic Fibrosis Radiothon, died from Cystic Fibrosis at age 18. died in May, 1983; she was 18 years old. She should be in her third year at McMaster. She isn't. She should be looking forward to her future. She isn't. For Michelle, there is no future because, quite simply, Cystic Fibrosis is a fatal disease. ATTACKS GLANDS The most common life- threatening, hereditary disease of children and young adults, CF attacks the glands that produce tears, sweat, saliva and mucus. The two main organs affected are the lungs and the pancreas. All bodies. produce mucus. In a healthy per- son, it is a thin, runny li- quid like the mucus that drains from your nose when you have a cold. However, in a Cystic Fibrosis victim, it is a thick, glue-like substance. This thick mucus creates breathing problems and if it is allowed to build up in the lungs, it provides a breeding ground for infection. In addition, the glue- like mucus fills the pan- creas, blocking produc- tion of the enzymes need- ed for the digestion of food. Inits advanced stages, the disease puts such a strain on the other organs, that often, heart failure occurs. Both parents must be carriers of the Cystic Fibrosis gene to produce a child with the disease, but there are no tests that can identify a car- rier. Sometimes, the gene can skip several generations before ap- pearing. At other times, it can affect two or more members of the same generation. The cause is unknown and, as yet, there is no cure. Research carried out over the past few years, however, has pro- longed the life of Cystic (Turn to page 20) UXBRIDGE MEMORIAL J FOR PERSONAL SERVICE VISIT OUR SHOWROOM HOME APPOINTMENTS & TRANSPORTATION BY REQUEST 38 YEARS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE COMPANY MEMORIALS OF DISTINCTION - GRANITE - MARBLE BRONZE Cemetery Lettering & Renovations Custom Designing & Lettering Quality & Satisfaction Assured by our own Written Guarantee. 852-3472 108 BROCK ST. WEST PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 2, 1985 -- 17 SPECIAL SPRING PROMOTION ON SELECTED SMALL CARS & COMPACT GMC PICK-UPS ... 9 _ TAT SOLER TW » ot A Pontiac RES ES Wh -4 4 SB Sunbird Re aa iii or? A -- "rr-- = = PONTIAC BUICK LIMIT D i 10 VANEDWARD DRIVE, PORT PERRY - EU Serviog the Community since 1978