Walgreens Offers ‘CF Champions’ to Help Cystic Fibrosis Patients Better Meet Everyday Challenges

Walgreens is launching CF Champions: Navigating the Journey, Together, a program to support patients, caregivers and all who have been touched by cystic fibrosis (CF). The initiative runs throughout May, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s National CF Awareness Month, and possibly through the end of this year.

Walgreens partnered with four CF Champions’ ambassadors, all skilled communicators, to describe their experience of life with the disease, and their suggestions for preventing infections, maintaining healthy nutrition, and making treatment regimens less rigorous.

Peter and Mary Frey

Ambassadors were chosen for their original and varied perspectives on the challenges of daily life, and for their optimism and success in meeting those challenges. Encouraging a positive dialogue about managing CF, they are sources of motivation and inspiration, and ideas on the latest in best practices.

The CF Champions’ ambassadors are:

• The Frey Life – Mary and Peter Frey have lived with CF for most of their lives, as Mary was diagnosed at seven weeks old, and manage CF as a team. Through their ‘video blog’ (vlog), the two “aim to show the ups and downs of everyday life with a chronic illness and encourage and inspire others.”
• A Mind ‘Full’ Mom – Kristen Chidsey received her CF diagnosis at age 31, and soon after was told that both of her children have CF as well. She is now their role model, a food and restaurant editor, and the writer of a blog about recipes, cooking on a budget, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle and family.
• Mama Pure – Laura Boyer is her son’s caregiver, who was diagnosed with CF eight days after he was born. She looks at the diagnosis as her family’s new normal, and doesn’t allow the disease to disrupt their plans or prevent her son from living a full life. Laura blogs about being a stay-at-home mom and baby products, but plans to focus on her experience as a
  

  Rachel Young

  CF mom and caregiver in future entries.

• Jet-Sitting Mom – Rachel Young’s daughter was diagnosed with CF when she was eight months old. The family still travels and enjoys their time together, bringing all CF treatment routines along for the ride. Rachel writes about travel destinations, services, and products.

“In the community of people involved with cystic fibrosis — patients, caregivers, health care professionals, researchers — there are many champions. We have selected some whose lives are touched by CF and who are also good storytellers, people who can share insights into the lives of families touched by this condition. We hope we can all learn something from them,” Gerald Gleeson, Walgreens’ Group vice president, said in a press release.

CF Champions is being promoted by Cystic Fibrosis Services Inc., a Walgreens Alliance Pharmacy providing specialized care for patients with CF. CF Services include access to CF-specialized pharmacists, a wide range of disease medications and products, the possibility of reordering medications online 24/7, the ability to track prescription orders or pay for them online, and access to information regarding insurance coverage.