CF Vests Worldwide brings lifesaving equipment to those with CF

Last updated June 26, 2025, by Agata Boxe

In January 2020, Rod Spadinger was surprised to receive a Facebook message from a stranger. A girl in Chile was asking him for help getting a cystic fibrosis (CF) vest. The vests cost about $20,000 each and are essential to people with the condition for help clearing mucus from the lungs.

Rod Spadinger founded CF Vests Worldwide in 2020. (Courtesy of Maria Fe Spadinger)

In the United States, the vests are covered by insurance. But in many places around the world, people don’t have access to insurance and cannot afford the expensive device. Uninsured families in the U.S. face the same problem.

Spadinger, now 52 and living in Bloomington, Illinois, was diagnosed with CF as a child. In 2017, he had a successful lung and liver transplant, which was why he had a vest that he no longer needed. He sent it to the girl in Chile.

About a month later, he received a similar message from a stranger in Lebanon. Spadinger shared his request on Facebook and heard from a girl in Ohio who had a vest she didn’t need. He sent it to the person in Lebanon.

Spadinger realized he wanted to help more people. In June 2020, he established the nonprofit CF Vests Worldwide, which donates the expensive, potentially lifesaving garment to those who need them.

Building a team

Around this time, Spadinger e-met Joshua Bauder, who’s now 40 and lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. His daughter had been diagnosed with CF.

Spandinger learned there was a need for the vests in Thailand, where they generally weren’t available, and Bauder became his business partner.

At first, it was just the two of them working together, but their team now includes six people. A key employee is Khadija Attique, who has CF and lives in Pakistan. She manages the communications for the nonprofit, including email and social media.

“She’s really the heart of the organization,” Spadinger says.

Over the past five years, CF Vests has donated 375 vests to people in 61 countries, including Afghanistan, India, Serbia, Syria, and Ukraine.

From challenges to solutions

For many nonprofits like CF Vests, funding and navigating costs can be challenging. Spadinger and his team try to manage these issues through a solution-oriented approach.

The main hurdle has been the high cost of shipping the vests overseas. That’s increased significantly since the pandemic, from under $1,000 to around $1,500 to $2,000 per vest.

Joshua Bauder with his daughter wearing a vest in November 2022. (Courtesy of Chitty Bauder)

They now have a surplus of vests that they can’t afford to send out — current shipping prices are simply too steep.

“It’s not sustainable for us to be paying for vests to go everywhere,” says Bauder.  And, he says, it is impossible for many people in under-resourced countries to cover the shipping costs themselves.

When relatives and friends of those who need the vests are traveling internationally,  Spadinger and Bauder try to coordinate with them to pick up the vests.

If they have many requests for vests in a single country and enough funding, they will have one of their employees fly to that country to deliver them.

Meanwhile, Spadinger says he lives frugally, so that more funding can go toward their mission.

Looking toward the future

Despite the obstacles, the CF Vests team has persevered. Their next goal is to expand their local reach by trying to identify uninsured CF patients in the United States who might need a vest.

Asked what advice they have for others who might be considering starting a rare disease nonprofit, Bauder says, “Wherever there’s a problem, there’s a solution. And if there isn’t a solution yet, then maybe you’re the person who needs to find it.”

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