Cystic Fibrosis is a hereditary disease in which various tissues are defective, including the sweat glands, the air passages and the pancreas. It causes repeated chest infections and digestive disorders. Kayleigh finds it very difficult to put on weight, as do all CF children, and takes anti-biotics on a regular basis. She has to undergo daily physiotherapy to ease congestion on her lungs and must take a pancreatic enzyme before eating anything with a fat content.
One person in 22 is a carrier of the disease. If two carriers have children, each child has a 25% chance of having the disease. It occurs in one in every 2,000 pregnancies.
CF was once universally fatal and although new treatments, including heart and lung transplants, have increased both quality of life and life expectancy, there is no cure.
