Young Southwold swimmer Jessica Swales has been shortlisted for the Kelloggs swimtastic disability swimmer of the year award.
The awards will take place on Saturday 20th October in Sheffield where she will meet many top athletes during the day and attend an "oscar like" gala presentation evening, when the awards will be presented. The Club, along with all its members wish her the best of luck at the awards on the 20th.
She has Cystic Fibrosis (CF) which is a genetic disorder mainly affecting lungs and breathing. Sufferers require continuous treatment to control infections which can be very serious.
At times Jess has been very ill and hospitalised, but apart from when she has been in hospital never misses a training session. In fact many club members would be unaware of her medical problem. In fact her hard work has resulted in her rapid improvement and she was moved up to the main club groups in September this year. Since then I have seen her continue to work hard and improve and has now competed in some open meets achieving really good personal bests.
Last year she wanted to
take part in a ground breaking CF clinical trial at the Royal Brompton Hospital. This involved 4 months of travelling from
Bristol to London every two weeks and along with taking the clinical drug put
herself through many tests at the London hospital including blood tests that she
was very scared of, but overcame her fear.
Jessica's Mum wondered if anyone would
like to help make a ground breaking, life changing Cystic Fibrosis drug become
available for Jessica and other people like her. This is the drug that
Jessica helped trial in London last year and has been used in America since Feb
this year. She is now trying to get the NHS and Drug company to agree to make it available
in the UK. It will have a huge impact on Jessica's health now as it is
the only drug that corrects the faulty CF gene and would give her a much
brighter future too.
The Cystic Fibrosis trust have issued an online petition to present in a few
weeks at a very important meeting where the final decision will be
made as to whether the drug will be made available. The more names on the petition, will show the NHS and the drug company the huge support, feeling and
need for this drug to be made available to the people who really need it to
change their lives.
If you can please support Jess by filling in the petition. It is very quick to do as you just need your name, email address and press send
and its done!
http://www.cftrust.org.uk/pressoffice/pressofficepo/kalydeco_updates/kcampaign
Keith