My Great Strides Story
Philip Reiter
Fundraising for Rochester Great Strides
Philip Reiter
Hello Friends & Family,
As is my usual rite of Spring, I am reaching out to you to raise awareness and financial support for the upcoming Great Strides Walk to Cure Cystic Fibrosis. This year, the Rochester walk will be taking place Saturday, May 10th at Three Links Park. Check In is from 9 -10 and the walk will start at 10.
I often joke with my family that this letter used to be easier to write. There always seemed to be new wrinkle or complexity caused by CF that I was dealing with. While I don’t miss those days at all, it did make for easy talking points. All kidding aside, I do feel extremely blessed and very lucky that the last 5.5 years, since I began taking Trikafta, have been quite stable and have consistent felt good and healthy. This isn’t to say that treating my CF isn’t still a major part of my daily life, as I still do treatments morning and night and deal with occasional issues stemming from the damage already done to my lungs and pancreas. But overall, complaints.
My lack of complaints is absolutely a testament to all the hard work by the CF Foundation and supporters, like you, who have helped fund the research that has led to this point where CF has become a much more manageable disease. When I was born (42 years ago), it was unlikely for a newborn with CF to make it out of adolescence. Now, the average life expectancy is well into the 50s and continues to increase. With updated and better version of medications and gene therapy in the pipeline, children born with CF today have a very good chance to live to near normal life expectancy. Again, this wouldn’t have been possible without the critical research that is paid for by the fundraising efforts of the CF community.
On a more personal level, my family and I are doing very well. Brooklyn (8) and Natalie (4) keep Jenna and I busy most of the time. We especially enjoy going to the farm on the weekends to work with 4-H animals and ride our horses. I try to savor this time as much as I can as I know that it won’t be too many years until school, sports, and their social life kick into high gear.
I realize Spring is a busy time for many and joining my family and I on May 10th may not be possible. If you would like to support Team Reiter with a donation, I would be very grateful.
Take care,
Phil, Jenna, Brooklyn, & Natalie Reiter
As is my usual rite of Spring, I am reaching out to you to raise awareness and financial support for the upcoming Great Strides Walk to Cure Cystic Fibrosis. This year, the Rochester walk will be taking place Saturday, May 10th at Three Links Park. Check In is from 9 -10 and the walk will start at 10.
I often joke with my family that this letter used to be easier to write. There always seemed to be new wrinkle or complexity caused by CF that I was dealing with. While I don’t miss those days at all, it did make for easy talking points. All kidding aside, I do feel extremely blessed and very lucky that the last 5.5 years, since I began taking Trikafta, have been quite stable and have consistent felt good and healthy. This isn’t to say that treating my CF isn’t still a major part of my daily life, as I still do treatments morning and night and deal with occasional issues stemming from the damage already done to my lungs and pancreas. But overall, complaints.
My lack of complaints is absolutely a testament to all the hard work by the CF Foundation and supporters, like you, who have helped fund the research that has led to this point where CF has become a much more manageable disease. When I was born (42 years ago), it was unlikely for a newborn with CF to make it out of adolescence. Now, the average life expectancy is well into the 50s and continues to increase. With updated and better version of medications and gene therapy in the pipeline, children born with CF today have a very good chance to live to near normal life expectancy. Again, this wouldn’t have been possible without the critical research that is paid for by the fundraising efforts of the CF community.
On a more personal level, my family and I are doing very well. Brooklyn (8) and Natalie (4) keep Jenna and I busy most of the time. We especially enjoy going to the farm on the weekends to work with 4-H animals and ride our horses. I try to savor this time as much as I can as I know that it won’t be too many years until school, sports, and their social life kick into high gear.
I realize Spring is a busy time for many and joining my family and I on May 10th may not be possible. If you would like to support Team Reiter with a donation, I would be very grateful.
Take care,
Phil, Jenna, Brooklyn, & Natalie Reiter
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