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The Excursion

Michael Crouch, Malcolm Croker, David Sharland and Julian Sheahan will be walking the course of Hadrian’s Wall, starting in Wallsend and ending up in Bowness-on-Solway, scheduled for some 5 days later.

As the crow flies this is some 84 miles in distance, if we allowed Mr Crouch to navigate, considerably more.

We very much appreciate you taking the time to visit this site and hope that you will support us in our journey.

Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited condition. It affects organs in the body, particularly the lungs and digestive system, which become clogged with sticky mucus, making it difficult to breathe and digest food. Cystic fibrosis affects over 8,000 people in the and is most common in Caucasian people. People with cystic fibrosis have a shorter life expectancy, with the average being around 31 years.

Cystic fibrosis symptoms

Cystic fibrosis is a "multi-system" disease, meaning that it affects many body organs. However, most of the symptoms are to do with the lungs and the digestive system.

Lungs

In a healthy person, there is a constant flow of mucus over the surfaces of the air passages in the lungs. This removes debris and bacteria. If you have cystic fibrosis, this mucus is excessively thick and sticky and cannot perform this role properly.

The sticky mucus also provides an ideal environment for bacterial growth. This can put a person with cystic fibrosis at risk of getting bacterial chest infections and pneumonia. If these infections are not treated early and properly, they can be very difficult to treat.

Digestive system

Cystic fibrosis also affects the digestive system. In a healthy person, the pancreas produces chemicals (enzymes) which pass into the gut as food leaves the stomach. These enzymes break down the fat.

If you have cystic fibrosis, the pancreas does produce enzymes but due to the mucus blocking up the ducts these are not available to digest the food. Without these enzymes, the fat in food is not properly digested and it is difficult to gain weight. The faeces contain an excess of fat and are oily and very smelly.

Other conditions associated with cystic fibrosis include:

• polyps (small growths) in the nose
• diabetes, because cystic fibrosis can damage the pancreas
• infertility in men, because the tube that carries sperm, the vas deferens, may become blocked
• fertility problems in women, because cystic fibrosis may cause nutritional problems and underweight women are more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles

Causes

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited, or genetic, condition.

Cystic fibrosis occurs because of a faulty gene called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator - or CFTR gene. Cystic fibrosis is an autosomal recessive disorder. This means that in order to develop the condition you need to inherit two cystic fibrosis genes, one from your mother and one from your father. If you inherit only one cystic fibrosis gene, you are called a carrier and do not have symptoms.