earlier, just before the leader came to give his closing remarks for the day, I was talking about that Michael Davis is going to be a freshman at Middletown High School about 20 miles south of Newark where 896 intersects with I-95. I was mentioning that Michael has succeeded in life as an athlete in ways that a lot of people think could just never happen. He has a disease called cystic fibrosis, and it was diagnosed very early in his life, but it is a genetic disease. I talked with him and his mom Jennifer about that disease and how it affects our bodies. It is a disease that causes persistent lung infection. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the condition is caused apparently by a defective gene that causes a thick buildup of mucus in our lungs and in other organs; and that mucus can clog our airways and trap bacteria that leads to infection, can lead to extensive lung damage and, in worst cases, to respiratory failure and then possibly maybe even likely death. This is a disease that 14-year-old Michael Davis lives with. I have heard, for somebody who has cystic fibrosis to run any distance at all, they--I ran this morning, and I felt like I had some kind of disease. It was humid out there. I think it was probably higher levels of ozone than I like to run in. For folks with cystic fibrosis like Michael, breathing is like they are breathing through a straw.…
On the recordJune 15, 2017
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