Aiden's Traveling Breath Of Life - Fighting CF Geocoin

This coin would like to travel from cache to cache, raising awareness about Cystic Fibrosis.

Cystic Fibrosis is an incurable disease which usually begins in infancy, is potentially fatal and affects multiple body systems such as lungs, pancreas, skeleton and skin. Some of the many symptoms of CF include bronchitis, pneumonia, respiratory failure, diabetes, nutritional deficiencies, and failure to thrive. Therapy is individualized and carefully monitored and will need to be continued throughout life.
For any parent, it would be devastating to learn that your child has this incurable disease, but the family we have designed these coins for has had twice the amount of devastation and heartbreak, as two of their children have been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.
The first born, Kaitlyn, age 13, was born 8 weeks early weighing 4lbs. 4oz. and required surgery on her first day of life, due to a bowel obstruction. She was diagnosed with CF during her 1 month stay at Valley Children’s Hospital. Until she finally stabilized at age 3, she required numerous hospitalizations due to pneumonia and failure to thrive. At 8 years old, she required a feeding tube in her abdomen to maintain her weight. In the last 1 ½ years her health has declined and hospitalizations became more frequent. Now her disease is progressing to where she has been hospitalized virtually every two weeks.
The family’s worst fears were confirmed 1 ½ years after Kaitlyn’s birth when doctors performed an amniocentisis on Kaitlyn’s mother and diagnosed her baby brother (Jerrod) with CF before he was born. Jerrod required frequent hospitalizations during infancy and by the age of 7, his lungs were failing and he required a lung transplant. Due to the generosity of 2 donors Jerrod’s lung transplant was performed at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera Ca. At that time he was the youngest person to ever survive a successful lung transplant. Now he is playing baseball and enjoying life.
These special Geocoins have been designed with these children in mind. On the front you’ll find the words: “A World Of Love” signified by the heart shaped globe with the words Love raised below the transparent enamels and the children’s names “Kaitlyn and Jerrod” also added. The compass points represent every direction the love, caring and sharing comes from as this is truly a worldwide effort and these coins will be shipped out to folks all over. The back side of the coin has the words: “The Breath Of Life” which is a fund raising slogan that was coined locally and it is accompanied by “Fighting Cystic Fibrosis” defining why we fight. The 3-D roses represent the phrase 65 roses, which is a trademark phrase used by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as many children cannot say Cystic Fibrosis and call the disease sixty five roses. The roses are capped with the purple ribbon, the colored ribbon used to symbolize the fight against CF.