Since the Verigin family of Langley began walking to fight Cystic Fibrosis in 2011, they have raised just over $50,000.
Voula Verigin kept track of the donations year to year, but hadn’t added it all up until recently.
“It’s shocking, actually,” she said after calculating the total on the kitchen table at the family’s Langley home.
“I didn’t realize that that’s how much we raised in a short amount of time.”
As she was talking, the person who inspired the effort was seated a few feet away in a comfortable armchair, focused on improving his score on a new favourite iPad game, while inhaling mist from a nebulizer to help his lungs.
Hudson Verigin will turn 10 in August.
He was three when he tested positive for CF, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs and digestive system of tens of thousands of people in Canada and throughout the world.
CF clogs the lungs and can cause life-threatening infections.
It also obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.
Hudson requires frequent physiotherapy, enzymes and oral medications to help with digestion and combat infection.
Because he can easily contract serious infections from other people, he has to avoid crowds and cannot personally participate in the annual CF walk.
Hudson, who was featured in Times stories about a Christmas conspiracy to find him a hard-to-locate gift, has been the public face of CF in ads for BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.
He has a lot to say about his video games and other stuff, and less to say about CF, but when gently pressed by his dad, tells a reporter that he just wants to be treated like other people.
On Sunday, May 28, the Verigins and their supporters will join with thousands of participants across Canada during CF awareness month to celebrate their fundraising efforts to support Cystic Fibrosis Canada’s mission — to end cystic fibrosis.
“I don’t just do this for him, I do it for all of them,” Voula says.
“I’m friends with moms who have teenagers (with CF), with moms who have adult children, with moms whose children have passed on.”
Dad, Graham Verigin, credits the family’s fundraising success to the generous support of relatives, friends, co-workers and his employer, who all step up every year.
“It’s good to see people are thinking about it,” he says.
That’s the major goal, to raise awareness.”
Funds raised at the walk, the closest of which will take place in Vanvouver, are used to target world-class research, supporting and advocating for high-quality individualized CF care and raising and allocating funds for these purposes.
