Living with CF

After her daughter was diagnosed with the disease, which causes progressive disability due to multi-system failure, she learned as much as she could about it and became a crusader of sorts in her goal to assist her daughter

“The most important thing I felt with my daughter going through CF was allowing her to live a normal life,” said Smith.

“To look at Belinda you would not know she had CF. She’s very healthy looking. But there are restrictions to her care.”

Belinda cannot be around people smoking. She must take over 30 pills a day (with every meal) to help her digest food because of the thick mucous in her body. She uses an aerosol mask twice a day followed by physiotherapy. Every four months she has to have a check up in Halifax.

Life expectancy for someone with CF is now 37. It’s risen dramatically from 11, when Belinda was diagnosed as a baby in 1983.

“The biggest population of CF is not children now, it’s adults. This is what I stress. People are giving donations and not seeing where it goes. Look at that number. Things have improved so much,” said Smith.

Smith says that although Belinda has been admitted in the hospital 17 times in her life, she’s trying very hard to let her lead a normal life.

For 20 years Smith has participated in the Yarmouth CF walk to raise funds for CF. The past two years she’s organized the CF Great Strides walk in Barrington. This year it takes place on May 25, starting at the Barrington Library at 12:30 p.m.