Today Cystic Fibrosis patients celebrate!

We are celebrating the 40th birthday of our Association, one of the oldest patient associations in Greece with a long history and a lot of work for CF patients!

40 years since May 25th 1983, the day that, for the first time in Greece, parents of young children with Cystic Fibrosis united their voices and founded our Association, after the encouragement of our pediatrician at the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, Mr. Adam Georgiou, to whom we are all grateful. At a very difficult time. A time when the disease had a very low survival rate and 75% of our patients died in childhood.

The parents of our young patients needed an association through which they could demand better access to the scarce drugs for the disease at the time, to defend the rights of their children, to make an unknown disease known to the public and to the State, to demand a better quality of life. With their struggles and the support of all our doctors, despite the grim predictions of low life expectancy, the young patients grew up. And so 2 decades ago the now adult patients took an active role in the Association along with the new parents of children of Cystic Fibrosis patients.

During these 40 years, the same parents and patients, united and hand in hand with the support of our doctors, we managed to change the “map” of the disease in Greece and to establish the Hellenic Cystic Fibrosis Association as one of the most recognized associations of rare diseases in Greece and abroad for its successful work for the health of patients.

Today, 4 decades after the founding of the Association, the facts about the disease are changing radically. Cystic fibrosis is coming of age and changing its face. From a fatal disease it is turning into a chronically manageable disease. Our dream of Unlimited Breath is soon becoming a reality for all of us!

Today we celebrate with respect to our past and with a vision for a better, more optimistic future. We continue into tomorrow more united than ever. We continue to claim the right of all Cystic Fibrosis patients to life, our right to Unlimited Breath!

Happy Birthday to our Association!

Happy Birthday to all of us!