I'm always amazed with the ways parents will fight for awareness for their kids' diseases. But I've got to give this Dad snaps (you'll forgive me for the bad nineties era reference in a moment).
Don Hebert, a lobsterman from Marshfield, Mass., spent hours of his New Year's handing lobsters out for nothing - to spread the news about his seven-year-old son's fight with cystic fibrosis.
There's no cure for the genetic condition which causes thickened mucus secretions, often putting a strain on CF sufferer's lung function. According to CysticFibrosis.com, the leading support site for CF patients, it's caused by "a genetic mutation that disrupts the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) protein."
Today's technology allows for CF to be caught via prenatal screenings - generally the chorionic villus sampling - but that's only if a mother has that particular test (it's not required in all states). Little Michael Hebert wasn't diagnosed until the day before he started kindergartent (he's now in first grade) after his coughing fits sent his parents to doctors looking for answers. At just seven, Michael has to put on a therapy vest twice a day to help loosen the mucus in his chest, and he makes frequent visits to Boston's Children's Hospital. Life expectancies for CF patients vary (the oldest known CF survivor lived to the ripe old age of seventy-six), but many succumb in their twenties or thirties.
For the Heberts, the idea was simply to let more people know it's out there. They weren't asking for money (hence the FREE lobsters, handed out long with pamphlets about cystic fibrosis). Don and his friends spent the latter part of the afternoon plowing driveways and shoveling steps and walkways, once again for free, to spread the word around town.
In all, the Heberts handed out five hundred lobsters along with their pamphlets. I give Don snaps for creativity - and for being a good dad.
Image/Source: The Daily News Tribune
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