GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Beth Heyboer decided nearly 20 years ago to join up with her friend Michelle Prangley Ripley and help run Friends and Families of Cystic Fibrosis.
It’s a nonprofit organization run with volunteers with the sole purpose of raising money to help children and adults in West Michigan who are affected by cystic fibrosis. It’s a cause near to Beth’s heart, as her son James was born with the disease.
“He was born three weeks early with a bowel blockage and underwent surgery for removal of 40 percent of his bowel at just 12 hours after birth,” Heyboer said.
CF largely affects the lungs; a thick mucus covers and fills them – but it can block other parts of the body. A bowel blockage is an early indication that CF may be present. The disease can hurt the pancreas as well.
“[James] was diagnosed with CFRD (Cystic Fibrosis Related Diabetes) around the age of 10,” Heyboer said. “He was then and is now insulin-dependent.”
When Heyboer joined Friends and Families of Cystic Fibrosis, it was with James in mind. She never knew that 20 years later, the auction the organization ran each year would change her son’s life.
At the 20th annual BID for Bachelors and Bachelorettes, Heyboer was up on stage, jokingly telling the crowd to put away their cell phones and bid. Everyone except her son, she said. That’s because James was waiting on a call from Spectrum Hospital as he was on the lung transplant list.
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