The GIFT of life
What would you do to save your own life, again and again? For Makena Houston, one of the 500 New Zealanders with cystic fibrosis, battling for survival hasn’t been a one-off dramatic event but rather a mandatory series of monotonous tasks, every single day. Physiotherapy twice a day, an hour a time. Nebulisers, a breathing machine, every single day. Medication every time she has something to eat. Makena, 26, can’t remember her mother, Tracey Richardson, sitting her down and having the “you have cystic fibrosis” chat with her. It was just the reality of their family life: both Makena and her older brother Cameron, 27, have cystic fibrosis – a genetic illness that is inherited when both parents carry the gene for it. It is progressive and it is incurable. “Over the course of your lifetime, it essentially scars up your lungs through continuous chest infections,” Tracey says. “Cystic fibrosis is a nasty, horrible disease that basically marches on and all you’re trying to do is slow it down.”
Makena and Tracey both live in Hawke’s Bay but on the day of chat they’ve just finished yet another test at Auckland Hospital, a place that has become a second home over the past two decades. Cystic fibrosis not only requires constant treatment
