Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories

Fighting Cystic Fibrosis with imagination

Sat, Dec 21st 2019 07:00 am

Cystic fibrosis has been in the news with the approval of a new drug for its treatment. Although Trikafta was approved in October by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, hailed by doctors and patients alike as a breakthrough, many children still deal with daily regimes of airway cleaning techniques, enzyme and antibiotic therapies, and frequent clinic appointments and hospital stays for check-ups and tune-ups.

Attempting to lift some of both the emotional and physical weight of CF, a gift of a hand-tied Christmas stocking containing a stuffed animal, carnival-sized sucker, coloring sheets, crayons, a book and Tim Hortons gift card were given to 13 Oishei Children’s Hospital families during their pre-Christmas clinic visit.

“Morgan McKinney’s Bigger-Than-Life Bedtime Story” by author Doug MacGregor was chosen as Morgan McKinney, the main character also wants to feel “weightless” and takes the readers high above the clouds to meet his zoo friends and Santa, too.

Delta Kappa Gamma also tries to lift the burden of college tuition for students, offering two yearly $500 scholarships to a North Tonawanda and Grand Island student pursuing a degree in the field of education as the Gamma Delta chapter of DKG draws its membership from these districts.

Pictured are: retired Grand Island teachers Karen Zirnheld and Pamela Suszczynski sitting with retired North Tonawanda teacher Joan Holesko, who with her husband over a decade ago established The Stephen P. Holesko Fund in memory of their son to support the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Oishei Children’s Hospital.

Hometown News

View All News