URGENT: 23 years is not the time to die! Adam fights for life - help him!

My name is Adam, I’m 23 years old and I am fighting for my life. I have cystic fibrosis - a deadly genetic disease that destroys my lungs. An average life expectancy of people suffering from cystic fibrosis in Poland is about 24 years. Many of my old friends from hospital have already passed.Statistically, I only have one year left to live... But I don’t want to die and I’m not going to give up. There is a medicine that can save me, and I am asking you to help me save my life.

I fight for my life, for every day, for every single breath. My daily routine consists of endless inhalations and lung physiotherapy, which I have to do at least twice a day and which takes around 5 hours during a day. Missing just one inhalation results in breathing problems and a severe cough - I basically start to suffocate.

I got diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when I was only a few months old and would constantly get new infections. A genetic research revealed the terrible truth... Cystic fibrosis - a disease caused by a gene mutation - destroys the entire body. It causes the secretion of thick mucus in excessive amounts, which destroys the body systems, especially the respiratory and digestive ones. It damages the lungs, causing them to gradually become fibrotic, and eventually leads to death.

Cystic fibrosis is a disease that’s insidious and unpredictable. Despite the hard, daily fight with the illness, there’s still a risk of a sudden, acute deterioration in my health. I’m afraid that one day I will not be able to breathe without oxygen; that I’ll end up in the hospital for good...

Infections and pneumonia are my everyday life. Unfortunately, my health keeps deteriorating. I have less and less strength, I am losing weight, I eat little, and my body does not allow me to eat more. There are days when I am unable to get out of bed. It is getting harder and harder for me to breathe. The capacity of my lungs is constantly decreasing, oscillating at the level of 29%.

Cystic fibrosis is also associated with a decreased immunity - although in times of pandemic I’m exposed to an increased danger, living in isolation and a continuous sanitary regime have always been known to me. Due to frequent, chronic infections, I had to stay at home a lot and limit my contacts with other people from a very young age. The disease has forced a slow, solitary lifestyle on me. Recently, I also had to give up attending university classes - the risk of catching the coronavirus and a severe course of the disease is just too high. It could be a death sentence for me.

Some time ago, however, a beam of hope has appeared on the horizon. In recent years many European countries have introduced a therapy with a breaktrough drug, which significantly prolongs lives of patients with cystic fibrosis. It’s a causative treatment - it focuses not on the effects, but on the cause of the disease. The lung capacity increases, the organs gradually regenerate. The drugs are refunded not only in most Western European countries, but even among Poland’s closest neighbors, like Czech Republic or Slovakia. Unfortunately, in Poland patients with cystic fibrosis still have to cope on their own. Non-refunded therapy costs over a million zlotys a year (about 250,600 USD). If Iwant to survive, I have to raise the money myself.

Getting the medicine would be the dream come true for me, and a chance to start my life over. It would put an end to the constant fear of imminent death, to constant worrying about my deteriorating health results. I’d finally be able to start to live my life to the fullest -to go out without worrying whether or not I’ll get shortness of breath or cough in a moment, and to start to function like all of my healthy friends. However, to achieve this, I have to get money to buy the medicine, and I am not able to do it on my own. Therefore, I’m asking you for help with all my heart!