September marks Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month
Posted Sep 11, 2020 09:00:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Over 14,300 Canadians are living with pulmonary fibrosis (PF), a rare disease that places them under an even greater risk now, while under the pandemic.
The disease causes scarring in lung tissues and has no known cure at this time. Survival rates at times are lower than lung cancer.
September marks Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month, which aims to educate people and raise funds for PF research.
“For me, in my daily life, it just sort of makes everything more challenging,” said Melissa Sulpher, a 39-year-old Waterloo woman who was diagnosed with PF back in 2008. “I just can't get enough air to do sort of everyday things, so like walking up stairs is really challenging. I often have to take breaks when I come up the stairs to catch my breath.”
Under the pandemic, the threat of catching COVID-19 caused additional stress on her and her family. They took all of Public Health's advice to heart.
“We just kind of gone to an extra level of making sure we're not being around other people, which has been really hard,” she said.
She also chose not to send her four kids back to school this fall; a choice she recognizes is not an easy choice for many other parents in a similar position.
“I'm that person that's at high risk, so it just was not worth sending the kids to school. Mostly because we don't want me to get sick, but also, it's just a burden to place on them to have to try and keep your mother safe, so for us it was an easy decision.”
Sulpher is acting as a spokeswoman for the Canadian Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation to share her story with others.
More information and how to donate to current PF research can be found here.
