Make it Count

I was born with a genetic disease called cystic fibrosis (CF). After the age ten, the disease started to take over my body. I was put in a wheelchair and on liquid oxygen. My lungs finally gave out. My family and I moved to the University of North Carolina so I could have a double-lung transplant. In August 1992 I got new lungs.

I am not going to lie, there were many times when I thought I would die fighting for my last breath on a vent in a hospital. For years I put on a show for people. My...