By telling you a bit about me and my life, I hope that someone will be inspired or that I can give hope to someone to not give up, to have faith and to believe anything is possible.

I am 28 years old, I’m reluctant to say it but I “suffer” from Cystic Fibrosis (CF), a life threatening illness. CF primarily affects the lungs and digestive system; it is an invisible disability. The average life expectancy for someone with my illness is 37yo.  Well, I’d like to say a big Hell No! I have a lot of things I want to do in life and living to the age of 37 just won’t cut it. So, I am making it my mission to make sure I am here for as long as possible; I am not going to let this illness beat me; I am going to beat it and I will continue to kick its butt until my last breath.

Let me give you an overview of my life to date. At only a few weeks old I was given up for adoption as my biological parents were new to Australia and there was not much knowledge of CF. They were told I would not live for very long. The best thing they ever did was give me up for adoption. I have the most amazing parents, my Dad is a paraplegic, my hero, he has no kidneys, 1 leg, 1 hip and undergoes dialysis 3 times a week. He also represented Australia in the Seoul Paralympics’ in 1988 as a Weightlifter and the story goes on. My Mum, the glue to our family, an amazing woman, I don’t know where to start on her. But, they adopted me knowing I had this life threatening illness and what an amazing job they did to ensure I lived as normal as possible.
Most of my childhood memories are of growing up in hospital, as I spent many months of 2-3 week stays in hospital having intravenous treatment to fight chest infections. I struggled to gain weight (and still do) so had a tube in my nose for many years followed by a button in my stomach until I got to high school, where throughout the nights I would be hooked up to a feeding pump for 6-8hours receiving high calorie milk to assist in my weight gain.

I found high school very difficult as I was absent a lot of the time due to being sick, I was also bullied a lot of the time, which made my high school years a time I’m glad I don’t need to relive.

When I was 16, one of my greatest achievements in life was that I had my own autobiography titled The Words Inside published by Random House. I talk very openly about being bullied, finding my biological family by accident after they believed I had passed away, my battle with living with CF, to believing I wouldn’t finish high school as my health took a turn for the worse. I was then granted “the un-wishable wish” from the Make A Wish Foundation Australia, to winning a national girl’s magazine, Girlfriend, Girlfriend of The year, which opened a huge door of opportunities for me. I became the youth ambassador of Australia for Cystic Fibrosis, opportunities such as television appearances, magazine editorials, modeling, radio segments and my passion for public speaking at events across Australia.
In 2012 I went to Pittsburgh, where I spoke in front of over 1800 people, including Jamie Oliver and Sir Bob Geldoff to name a few, on living with Cystic Fibrosis, this was also aired live online. This was probably yet another huge highlight in my career.
I have been fortunate to beat the odds, in that I have travelled to the USA and Europe, I have overcome obstacle after obstacle and have become proof to myself that anything is possible if you set your mind to it.

I have always wanted to be a Mum. I think there comes a time in some women’s life where they just know they are ready. My husband and I had come to a point in our life where we had discussed it. The knowledge I had at the time was that for a CF woman to naturally fall pregnant was almost impossible and CF men are infertile, so IVF would be the way to go. I knew it would be a long journey if we were to go down that path. I remember trying to research online about CF women and pregnancy but had struggled to get much information. If anything, CF women have said they wouldn’t have children because of the life expectancy they have or how their health would suffer from being a Mum. I felt there wasn’t any hope of me falling pregnant naturally.

Well I can proudly say I am now a mother of two beautiful children, our first daughter Ayvah, (2yo) our miracle baby, the baby I didn’t think I could ever have. I feel so blessed to have fallen pregnant naturally, had a very healthy pregnancy and normal labor. Then, our darling son Logan was born in July this year. A boy and a girl, how lucky some would say! My pregnancy with Logan was more difficulty from the day I got the positive test. I was constantly unwell, I had an iron infusion as well as many days of rest, many CF related sickness also and I even had to have intravenous treatment whilst pregnant. How fun, having a needle in the side of my body for 2 weeks, co-sleeping with a toddler and a snoring husband, oh and a pregnant belly! Not fun!
Logan was delivered early as he was pushing up on my lungs that I could barely breathe let alone string a sentence without a constant cough. I would be up all night coughing because I was sick the whole time. It wasn’t enjoyable and I was induced at 37 weeks; he entered the world completely healthy and I had an easy natural labor with 12 minutes of pushing!

I feel so blessed to have been through so much in my life, I know with the good comes the bad and the bad comes the good, I have had many ups and many downs but I am so excited to be in this chapter of life called motherhood.

I hope that other women can get some inspiration from me or a little bit of faith. I have learnt that everyone you meet has a story to tell and most people have had something happen in their life that they are stronger from. My life isn’t easy, but I’m making the most of everyday and want to encourage others to dream like you have no limits and reach for the stars. I would rather have a list of to do’s than a list of ‘impossibles’.