Ainslie gave a talk about CF

[Guest guest]

Ainslie's class are doing a topic about " what makes you you " . They

have been going through the stages of their lives, made up timeline

charts, looked at how some people have different types of families and

then the physical difference.

There are triplets in her class, one girl who has a condition that makes

her bones soft, several girls from different nationalities (different

skin colours - fairly rare here in Tasmania - but were getting a more

international flavour thank goodness), one girl has a sister with down

syndrome and Ainslie with her cf. Each gave a talk, the teacher

approached the parents first, I had no objections but asked if I could

be there to hear what Ainslie had to say.

Ainslie started very well but called cf a disease, I was near her and

quietly corrected her saying it was a condition not a disease, she

agreed with me and continued very eloquently and stated the things she

knows about mucus and that it is genetic (but didn't really know what

that meant). I was impressed with how confident and knowledgeable she

was and not at all ashamed or embarrassed by being " different " .

She asked me to bring all her meds and supplements along as props, well

some of the girls couldn't believe all the stuff she has to do. She did

have to ask me what some meds actually did, but she was terrific.

After her talk the teacher talked to the girls about genetics and how

Nigel and I could have 1wcf 1wo or 2 carriers with each pregnancy. It

went really well, most of the girls grasped the concept and it helped

Ainslie to understand better why Connor doesn't have cf and she does.

All in all I was , no am, very proud of Ainslie.

Terri

mum to Ainslie 10 1/2 wcf and Connor 6 1/2 nocf