Family hopes to help their loved one 'breathe easy'

Date: 6/13/2012

June 13, 2012

By Katelyn Gendron

katelyn@thereminder.com

CHICOPEE — They say some things in life "are as easy as breathing" but what if breathing wasn't so easy?

For Leigh-Anne Andrews, 28, who was born with cystic fibrosis and is in need of a double lung transplant, most things are easier than breathing. Andrews' family members have stepped up to help make the financial obligations of pre- and post-transplant life a bit easier for her and her husband, Ryan, by organizing the Breathe Easy Benefit on June 16 at the Moose Lodge on Fuller Road.

"We didn't want them to lose their house or their cars. The operation itself, [which will occur as soon as lungs are available], is covered by insurance but it's all those extraneous expenses. Then she has to go back to Boston once per week for three months [after surgery]. Those are the kinds of expenses we hope to cover with this benefit," Debra Johnson, Leigh-Anne's mother, said, noting that Ryan will also have to take a leave of absence from work in order to care for his wife following the surgery, which consists of 7 to 10 days in the intensive care unit at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Leigh-Anne was living "a healthy life until she was 22 or 23" years old, working locally as an aesthetician, she explained.

"She's been on disability for five years," Johnson added. "She's been hospitalized five times since October [2011]. A big walk for her now is 0.2 mile. She's on oxygen to maintain her O2 stats [oxygen saturation], she also has a portable IV [intravenous therapy] device and she has a problem keeping weight on so she has a g-tube [gastrostomy tube] to receive supplemental treatment overnight."

She said that despite everything that Leigh-Anne and Ryan have experienced throughout the past five years, they remain devoted to each other and a healthy future.

"Her husband is amazing. He looks at her and he sees Leigh-Anne, not the health issues that color her life," Johnson said, noting that the extended family has also learned to appreciate the blessing of breath.

"Not only are we all organ donors but when Leigh-Anne and Lyndsay [her older sister] were diagnosed, those of us who were smokers quit," Donna Dube, Leigh-Anne's aunt and organizer of the fund-raiser, said. "When you see an infant that has to go through the therapy and the medications and hospitalizations with pneumonia, it's a very humbling thing ... it was something that I felt shamed into doing. I was taking my breath for granted. My mother was a 40-year smoker who quit and aunts and uncles and cousins quit too."

On the benefit's website, Leigh-Anne thanked her family and friends for their support and made it clear that cycstic fibrosis "is a terminal disease and my only hope of prolonging my life is by receiving new lungs."

She added, "As difficult as it is to have to reach out to others for help, and share my health concerns, I also worry about the financial burden this will carry for Ryan and myself and our future. The Transplant Team has told us that this is not a cure, it is trading one chronic condition for another so frequent visits to Boston will continue, especially for the first year ... I am so grateful to those around me for being there through thick and thin and I am so looking forward to the day when I can join them in all the moments of an active, healthy life, and have the ability to breathe easy."

The Breathe Easy Benefit will take place on June 16 from 4 to 11 p.m. at the Moose Lodge, 244 Fuller Road. There will be an outdoor barbeque from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., live music and a raffle. The cost is $20 for adults and $5 for children age 12 and younger.

Those who'd like to make a monetary donation may do so by mailing checks to Leigh-Anne Andrews Trust, c/o Northbrookfield Savings Bank, 4 Daniel Shays Highway, P.O. Box 153, Belchertown, MA 01007.

To read more about Leigh-Anne and for more information about the benefit, visit www.leighannesbreatheeasy.org.