My Brothers and I on my Make-a-Wish cruise sportin' our breathe easy bracelets
My mom has always told the story about a time after I had first been diagnosed with CF. My two older brothers watched some sort of show on the Discovery Channel about partial lung donation. Understanding only that CF affected my lungs, Danny and David came up with a plan. They excitedly approached my mom and said "We decided we are each going to donate part of our lungs to Lauren!" It warmed her heart, and she told them that that was very nice of them, but that they couldn't just chop off their lungs and give them to me.
Even though my brothers were never able to divvy up their lungs to fix mine, they have been crucial to helping me fight CF. Ever since I was young, they were always involved in Great Strides walks, bringing their friends and fundraising, even wearing our embarrassing "TEAM LIGHTENING: WALKING TO ZAP OUT CF!" shirts. They never complained when Mom had to spend weeks in the hospital with me, and they always came to visit. In high school, they sold purple "breathe easy" bracelets to their friends, convincing the guys that purple is manly. They both wrote their college essays about how having a sister with CF has affected them, one of them even wrote that he looked up to me, when it seems as if it should be the other way around. As they got older, they started running the Falmouth Road Race for CF, fundraising thousands and thousands of dollars over the years all to help fight CF. When I started running they were proud of my small successes, giving me pointers on stretching and routes around town. When an exciting piece of news comes out they are eager to learn about it. My big brothers have been supportive since day one. Even though we aren't the lovey dovey type, and they run away when I try to hug them, I feel their love all the time.
I'm so lucky to have two brothers who care and support me like they do. The little sister is supposed to be the annoying one who no one can stand and though that's probably been the case most of my life (as I always was the princess!!!), my brothers never let that stand in the way of their support for me. Even though they were never able to follow through with their innocent plans as kids, they did so much more than that. They have raised incredible amounts of funds for the CF Foundation, they have been there to love and support me my whole life, and some day when a cure is found, I can attribute a lot of that success to people like them, protective big brothers who don't stop fighting for their little sisters.
