SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Cystic Fibrosis, also referred to as CF, is a rare genetic disease, with only around 40,000 people in the United States having the condition. As of now, there is no cure for Cystic Fibrosis.
Many people remember the book-turned-movie ‘5 Feet Apart’, which tells the story of two cystic fibrosis patients’ relationship. However, the real-life disease is something Dannika Weelborg lives with every day.
“It basically just makes the mucus within your whole body and especially your lungs to be super, super thick. So then if there’s bacteria and normally gets stuck in your lungs instead of going through and then you get sick easier,” Dannika Weelborg said.
Every day, she spends over an hour doing treatments to help her get the mucus out of her lungs, and even longer if she is sick. Because of Dannika and thousands of people like her, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has been gathering baskets full of wine and other goodies for a Corks & Kegs event in Sioux Falls this Friday.
“This is our 10th anniversary of Corks and Kegs and we’re bringing it back eighties style so people will be able to come and enjoy tastings of wine, brew, mocktails and have food, all while having a lot of fun dancing to the music of Lunatics Anonymous, which is an eighties band,” Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Development Director, Monique Johnson said.
Dannika is the ambassador for this year’s event. In recent years, there have been treatments that have drastically helped CF patients. Unfortunately, the treatments haven’t worked for Dannika.
“I had really, really bad side effects and I wasn’t myself and it pretty much changed my personality,” Dannika said.
This is why events like this can help her and so many other people with CF get closer to finding a cure, and in turn, prolong their lives.
“We’ve made a lot of strides in funding research for treatments that have extended and given more tomorrows to cystic fibrosis fighters. There’s no cure. And some of those treatments do not fit for all cystic fibrosis fighters either,” Johnson said.
“It’s a little bit heartbreaking to hear other people’s success stories and say like, Oh my gosh, I don’t even have to do treatments anymore for CF. And I’m sitting over here morning and night shaking and trying to stay healthy the best that I can,” Dannika said.
Since 1989, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has provided over $3.6 million in funding for the Sanford Cystic Fibrosis Care Center in South Dakota and North Dakota.
Click here to help support the Corks and Kegs event or to buy tickets.
