My Hike to Battle Cystic Fibrosis! Will you help save a life?

Hello all!

Today I am happy to say that I spent the day hiking 11 miles at South Mountain State Park with some pretty amazing people including, my good friend Stan. Dwayne and I have been friends with Stan and his wife Krista for several years now and for the past few years, he has been asking us to come out and participate in his training hikes at some of the local mountains around Charlotte.

My friend Stan! Hike master!

 He is involved in these training hikes because in a few months he has an "extreme hike" that he participates in to help raise money to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

Stan became involved in the charity because he had a childhood friend die from Cystic Fibrosis. He dedicates a lot of time and effort to fundraising to fight this disease. Stan and his group of friends do the "Extreme Hike" every year to raise money to fight this terrible disease and for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. By 'extreme' I mean that they hike 30 miles of the Appalachian Trail in one day! 30 Miles!

What is Cystic Fibrosis?

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that:

• clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and
• obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.

Today I had the pleasure of joining them on a training hike and spent a beautiful Saturday with good people, fresh air and exercise.

We hiked 11 miles and, at times, it was pretty arduous! There were a lot of serious inclines and it took us about 4 hours to complete the training hike. Although, along the way there were some really beautiful sites to see.

 

Probably one of the best sites of the entire day was seeing a dog riding a horse. Seriously, that really happened. I have photo evidence.

 

Seriously, it's a dog riding a horse!

 



 At the end of this day, I am tired, stiff and will probably be sore but it was such a great experience and I am glad I met some of these people.

Stan is currently trying to raise $3,000 for the BIG HIKE and he is very grateful for any donations that people would be willing to give. If you want to donate for this big hike or learn more about the charity hike, click here to see his fundraising page!

Good Luck Stan!