Breathing Through a Straw: Cody & I. A story of love and hope

‘Breathing Through a Straw’ is a memoir of a father’s fight to do absolutely everything to save his son’s life. Mark and Bridget received the devastating news that they had given their smiling six-month-old baby boy a genetic death sentence in the form of cystic fibrosis. They were terrified to learn that, at the time, a child with cystic fibrosis would be lucky to survive to their teenage years. The family’s world was turned upside down and they were set on a path to find new treatments and support the efforts to find a cure, all while trying to give Cody as normal a childhood as possible. With good humour and emotion, Mark Sheehan tells a story familiar to anyone with a loved one battling a chronic cycle of medications, therapies, treatments and hospitalisations. For sufferers like Cody, every breath required to stay alive was like breathing through a straw. Following successful transplant surgery Cody is something of a miracle - living a full life in his thirties. Cody and his story provide living, breathing hope for others with cystic fibrosis. For Cody and for his fellow ‘cystas’ and ‘fibros’ the next best things to cure is hope.