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| Son Raises Funding for CPF While Cheering on Transplanted Father, Spreading Hope to Others Suffering |
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Terence Hales wants all PF patients and families to experience the renewed faith and hope that he and his family now has. To that end, Terence raised $7,500 in his first fundraising effort, a 5K Run/Walk in New York City's Central Park on May 17, 2008.
Terence's father, Tom Hales, received a life-saving lung transplant late last year after a two-year battle with PF and a rapid decline. "While he was hopeful for a cure, he knew he needed a transplant to survive. Fortunately, he was one of the lucky ones who received the blessing of a double lung transplant," Terence said.
Deciding to turn his excitement over his father's recovery into action for the disease, Terence partnered with the CPF and planned his first fundraiser. It was an easy decision, he says, to choose to raise funds for the CPF. "After coming to terms with the fact that my father had a disease with no known cause and no cure, I began researching the Internet to try and learn more about the disease. In my search I found the CPF," he said.
Through Terence's attendance of a 2007 "Living with IPF" patient event held by the CPF in partnership with Mt. Sinai, Terence learned more about the disease, about patients' struggles and about the need to increase funding. "I realized the CPF could make an impact on my father's chance for survival," he said. "These people are amazing! I found an organization that's actually helping to find a cure," Terence says. "I had to take action and do something about this terrible disease."
Prior to holding the fundraiser, Terence participated in National IPF Awareness Week in September 2007 which drove his commitment to the CPF further. "It reinforced my interest and confidence in the organization's mission," he said. "IPF Week was another way the CPF identified that I could help, other than raising money for the cause."
Through his experience on Capitol Hill, Terence learned more about the CPF. "I was able to gain a better understanding of the limited resources the organization has and yet how much it is still capable of accomplishing," he said.
"CPF was an organization that responded to me, helped provide information, offered support and seemed to be leading the awareness effort. I wanted to give back. I wanted to join the cause, to spread the message and help them realize their mission," Terence said. "We were so fortunate to have the result my father did. I wanted to help others who may have been less fortunate, who are dealing with this or may deal with this in the future."
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