We are excited to walk for Cooper at Great Strides this year and hope you will join us! It would mean so much to Derringer, Cooper and me if you walk with us, no matter what you choose to donate.

The walk is on Saturday, May 17th, 2025 at Carondelet Park - check in starts at 9:00am, the walk starts at 10:00am.

Our sweet son Cooper was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis in August 2024 when he was 12 days old. He was born 6 weeks early with a severe case of a common complication of CF - meconium ileus - which required 20 centimeters of his intestines to be removed just a few hours after birth. He spent his first 46 days in the NICU at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. 

Every day, Cooper takes 26 pills, 2 vitamins, and spends 40 minutes doing manual chest physical therapy to help clear his lungs. For the rest of his life, he will rely on many genetic modulator drugs, vitamins and therapies to help him digest food, fend off infection, and keep his lungs healthy. 

In 2019, a new drug called Trikafta was FDA approved that dramatically changed the landscape of Cystic Fibrosis treatment. Learning about this drug, and that Cooper will be eligible to start taking it when he turns 2, has been a driving force of hope for Derringer and me as we have coped with Cooper's diagnosis. The CF Foundation has been instrumental in getting these life-changing drugs researched, developed and approved. If you are interested in learning more about this, here is a link to an article that we found very educational on Trikafta and CF in general. 
 

The Cystic Fibrosis Breakthrough that Changed Everything.pdf

We are so grateful for the work of the CF Foundation and the incredible progress that has been made in recent years, but these medicines are not a cure. We want to play a part in helping fund genetic therapies, our best hope for a cure for Cooper the Trooper and all other babies born with CF.