David Rouleau was born with Cystic Fibrosis. His older brother was also born with the same terminal illness, only he passed away at the age of 13. David has lived with the effects of the disease all of his life and has adapted to its increasing devastation to his body. He is one of the kindest and gentlest men I have ever met, with a sense of humor that is infectious. My life was blessed beyond measure nineteen years ago when he asked me to be his wife. Our ten year old daughter is definitely a daddy’s girl and though she’s been very brave, she is terrified of losing her father.

David’s lungs are worn down to the point that he is in need of a double lung transplant. He is tired all the time and rarely leaves the house as it exhausts him. He has frightening coughing fits, doesn’t sleep well and has developed CF related diabetes. David has also had hemoptysis, what we lay people would refer to as bleeding from his lungs, several times. Praise God the bleeding stopped each of those times but it may not the next time. We look forward to the day that David can belly laugh with his daughter without having a horrible coughing fit, getting out of breath and eventually having a headache. We look forward to going on family outings again, to taking bike rides, to going places we used to go all together.

Lung transplants are life-saving but financially draining as there are many out of pocket expenses. One of the largest of these is the travel and relocation costs associated with treatments in Boston. So we are humbly asking for help. Please help us with the huge task of raising funds to assist with the monumental expenses that go above and beyond what insurance will cover for pre- and post-transplant care.

To help with David’s out-of-pocket expenses a fundraising campaign in his honor has been established with HelpHOPELive, a nonprofit organization that has been assisting the transplant community for 30 years. All donations are tax-deductible, are held by HelpHOPELive in the Northeast Lung Transplant Fund, and are administered by HelpHOPELive for transplant-related expenses only. Please consider making a contribution.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for your support, prayers and generosity.

Amanda Rouleau
the_rule_ohs@juno.com