Chrissy and I are hiking again this year to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and I hope you can join us–either at the event on September 27th or by donating on behalf of our team, Mas Mileage.

Here’s why we do this: 

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare disease caused by a genetic mutation. It prevents people from breathing and digesting food normally and frequently leads to life threatening lung infections. It used to be fatal in childhood for nearly everyone who had it, but early detection and effective therapies have made big improvements in lifespan and quality of life.

The effort to cure CF is important to me because of its impact on my family. We lost my older brother Matt and my youngest sister Sarah to it. My sister Anna lives with CF and thankfully has seen significant improvements in her health from the Trikafta therapy that was developed with CF Foundation funding. 

The CFF is 60 years old this year and it has been a source of support to my family from its inception. They fund a ton of research, including the groundbreaking work that deals directly with the CFTR protein that is key to finding a cure. Trikafta is one therapy that resulted from those efforts. In addition to research, the foundation provides a variety of services for patients and their families and is a vital resource to clinical specialists around the country.

If you love hiking and want to go the distance with us, join our team! I promise it will be a lot of fun. We have training hikes leading up to the big event that will make sure you’re ready for it and we can help you fundraise too. If you can’t join us at Snowshoe Resort in September, please consider supporting our team with a donation. It will be great to have you with us either way!