Uncork A Cure

“You have not lived until you have given to someone who can never repay you.”
-John Bunyan

October 1, 2010 marked the Sal’s Pals 4th Annual Uncork A Cure.
Thanks to all of our sponsors and guests, especially our committed wine vendors that continue to support our event year after year, we were able to raise over $8,400 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The money will continue to help the foundation research for new preventative drugs and help continue the fight that each of you has joined with us in funding research for a cure.

a sleepless night

I'm right here with you.
I cannot sleep.
I am praying.
I cannot sleep.
I am hoping.
I cannot sleep.
I am thinking.
I am loving.
I am breathing.
I am living.

The poem above is an excerpt from Eva Markvoort’s blog, a young woman who struggled for air. Eva died earlier this year at age 25 from complications after a double lung transplant. Prior to her death, she remarkably shared her life through her blog, sparing no honesty in describing the terror of battling cystic fibrosis. Eva detailed her body's tragic rejection of her donated lungs, lungs she needed to live, and her life dealing with Cystic Fibrosis.
She was grateful for breathing.
I am often sleepless, often staying up entirely too late, am over thinking, praying, loving. I am grateful for all that I have. I have not ever questioned though, the air that I breathe, it is something I obviously take for granted. A day doesn’t pass that I am not thankful for Sal’s health, for being able to watch him play football, for the opportunity to help him with his homework, for being his aunt. I am inspired by Eva. I am inspired by the woman I approached on St. Patty’s day several years ago while selling beads for a cure. I told her I was raising money for CF, she told me she had CF. She was 57 years old. I am inspired by Emily Schaller, and Somer Love, and their CF fight, and for the awareness they bring to others. I am inspired when I read letters like this one I recently read on a blog:

Hey Connor's Mom... 


You had me when you mentioned imagining him running and breathing with ease... I'll be 50 in April. I have CF - though my early years were not as hard as Connor's, they weren't easy. I do breathe easily now, because of a beautiful 17-year-old girl from Iowa named Kari... I breathe with her gift -- with her lungs. What you're trying to do, raising money for the CFF, may allow your precious Connor to someday breathe more easily without someone else' lungs. I truly admire you. I'm alive today because of people like you. Thank you. 

I hope your precious Connor has a more beautiful and incredible life than I have. I know he's got a head start because I sense he has an incredible Mom and Dad and family.

Love, Steve

Connor is breathing easily now, just not here where he belongs. Connor was waiting for a transplant and at age 7, about 5 months ago, he died from cystic fibrosis.

Did You Know...
There are over 100,000 people, the size of a small city, on the transplant list in the US today.
That in the time it takes you to shower, 1 new name will be added to the transplant waiting list.
From the time you woke up this morning to the time you wake up tomorrow morning, 18 people will die waiting for their transplant in the US alone.

While Sal appears to be a perfectly normal, amazingly handsome, overly arrogant, nine-year-old boy, he still spends hours each day on treatments that allow his body to stay a step ahead of the disease that he is inflicted with. I have never allowed myself to imagine the day that Sal would be in one of these victims’ place and I can’t imagine my fight today without the love and support of each and every one of you that have sacrificed your time, talents and money to help Sal’s Pals be the organization that it is today. Thank you! I hope that you will continue to support us in making CF stand for CURE FOUND!

Until there is a cure,
Aunt Nikki