Blake Bedford is 20 and he has had to live with the terrible illness which is cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis affects the respiratory and gastroenterology systems of the body and the long term affects are many and profound. Due to the excessive thick mucus produced both bowel and lungs need to be treated, mucus blocks the airways and causes extensive damage due to multiple infections. This is combated by regular Physiotherapy up to four times a day and nebulised treatment which consists of a cocktail of daily drugs and intravenous antibiotics.

Blake's treatment regime is daily! This has increased over the years with more medications being added in to help him live a normal life. Unfortunately infections do occur and this usually requires oral or intravenous antibiotics which normally involves a stay in hospital.

I met Blake and his family when he was 4 years old, his parents were encouraged to keep him as active as possible so his mum enrolled him into swimming lessons. Blake's commitment to his lessons was immense, all exercise was hard for him due to his condition but he didn't let that stop him and he successfully learnt to swim and swim well.

As Blake grew up I was getting more aware of how hard is was for him and his family to be living with this illness. Blake was spending more and more time in and out of hospital and as you can imagine this was a strain and very stressful for the whole family.

I have worked with a lot of children with varying conditions any the one thing that constantly amazes me with the Bedford's is their commitment to try and lead a normal life. Blake and his family never moan about their situation they just simply get on with it. After many conversations with Maxine ( Blake's mum ) I was amazed to find out that when Blake turned 18 the NHS stop funding simple treatments that Blake needs to help maintain his lifestyle.

So in 2010 I took part in a British long distance swimming event to raise funds to help Blake and his family cope. Those funds have helped the Bedford's over the last three years but they've nearly run out which means it time to raise more!

Please help or join us in the fund raising activities that we will be doing this year. All support in any which way you can will be awesome and much appreciated.

Lee Gillespie