Champions in the fight against CF

When the Turton's first came into contact with Cystic Fibrosis [CF], they were eventually referred to the USA in order to get the medical assistance that was not available here in Barbados nor anywhere within the Caribbean region. Over the years, their family has become well known to their medical team at the Cohen Children's Hospital NY. 

The Turtons with their medical team at Cohen Children's Hospital

A phenomenal group, there willingness extended to visiting Barbados to help build the awareness of the illness. Educating us in Barbados as to what we should look for and where professional help may be sought. They even interacted with the medical fraternity here through lectures at various venues, enabling doctors to be able to identify the traits within patients so that they can be recommended for testing to confirm whether or not they have CF. 

Through our awareness programs, there are a few others who have been able to identify that they were impacted. Also our organization, The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Barbados, has become the go to entity for international travellers who wish to visit the island and in their planning want to know what opportunities for care are existent locally should they ever have an episode requiring care. 

The team at Cohen Children's Hospital have been instrumental in putting us in contact with The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation who have been quite instrumental in assisting us locally at The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Barbados  in becoming established to assist those within Barbados and indeed the wider Caribbean in obtaining care for their loved ones. 

To the team of Cohen's Children Hospital, not only The Turton's, but Barbados, thanks you for your care, professionalism , friendships, and accommodation in all that you have done to improve the lives of children from across the globe. Your insights and example have enabled us to become a respected entity within Barbados that offers assistance, not only to children, but to everyone who suffers from the challenges associated with CF. We remain commited to assisting those commited with CF to realize a better standard of living as they cope with the illness medically. Since interacting with you and others who have CF, we have seen the awareness grow. We still remain commited to having a regional medical team develop who can provide the care and reassurance given the example you have set. We say, a heartfelt thank you. 

Volunteers - Youth and Finance

Barbados has hope! This statement is due to the caring nature of some of our youth and financial institutions. We at The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Barbados [Cffb] can say this is true, because we have experienced it.

The youth of The St. Michael School and the Frederick Smith Secondary School have joined the volunteer forces of the Cffb as they are preparing their major fundraising initiative for 2015 where proceeds go towards helping the growing numbers of families affected by Cystic Fibrosis [CF]. These youth will be participating in a variety of ways to realize this and will be given certificates for the initiatives within which they participate. This is because the Cffb believes in recognizing the efforts of their supporters, and volunteers are no exception. The volunteer efforts of these students go towards their high school certification on their curriculum.

Corporate entities are more focused on giving back to society, and they are not doing so because they have to, but they genuinely enjoy helping. For this we are thankful at the Cffb, since Royal Bank of Canada [RBC] has graciously offered and tangibly supported our efforts of building awareness and building funds to help those afflicted with CF. We have had a phenomenal time sharing with their team mates who participated in our outreach efforts, and thank them for putting their shoulders alongside ours and really serving. RBC we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with you and we want to publicly thank you for your support, especially when we recognize that you had choices of organizations that you could have chosen to serve. We have found RBC to be an organization that cares. The actions of these groups cements it in our minds that Barbados has hope!