FOUR YEARS

It's been four years since you left this realm.

Not a day passes without you, seeing you in our memories, hearing you in our thoughts, and holding you tight within our hearts.

Although we celebrate your life everyday, it's days like today that we share our fondest memories of you with each other over meals of foods you liked the best.

We continue to share our love and memories with Kat who will always be one of "us", through you.

Loving you forever, Mom, Angele and Everett, Mathieu and Sara, Felix and Addison.

Posted by Gina Champagne on 7/10/2011 4:25:44 PM

May is Cystic Fibrosis awareness month and for the 5th year in a row, Team BreatheLife will be participating in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Great Strides walk.

Great Strides is one of cystic fibrosis’s largest international fundraising events. Thousands of people come together each year as one community for one cause… to help find a cure or an effective control for CF.

Josh and Skylar will be walking on May 15, 2011 in Brooklyn, NY. Christy and Carly will be walking in Red Deer, AB on May 29, 2001.

Together we raised over $2500 in 2007, $2,000 in 2008, $2,000 in 2009, $2,000 in 2010, and hope to break the $3000 mark this year!

Please support us by donating here:

Brooklyn, NY (May 15, 2011):
http://www.breathelife.ca/walknyc

Red Deer, AB (May 29, 2011):
http://www.breathelife.ca/walk

There are Great Strides walks set up in most major cities so check http://www.cysticfibrosis.ca/en/GreatStrides (in Canada) or https://www.cff.org/Great_Strides (in the US) if you are interested in walking in your city.

Posted by Skylar Challand on 5/12/2011 9:58:09 AM

Christmas Eve I wait for You

Quiet, is the night
Under the blanket of snow
The stars are bright
And the moon’s all a glow,

The fireplace is a blazing,
The tree is all a glitter,
I sit here a waiting.

I wait for you, my angel son
to share with me,
Another Christmas of memories
I hold within my heart.

I love you forever, Mom

Posted by Gina Champagne on 12/25/2010 1:36:11 AM

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Vincenzo,
Happy Birthday to you.

As we celebrate what would have been your 29th birthday with a birthday cake in your honour, we blow out the candle and make a wish for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

Missing and Loving you forever and always, Mom

Posted by Gina Champagne on 9/30/2010 11:29:33 PM

HOLDING ON TO YOU FOREVER

My dearest Vincent,

It’s been three long years
Since you let go of your pain
Three long years
Waiting to see you again

I hold on to you tight
To memories of you, tonight
We were stronger all together
than we could ever be apart
I hold on to you forever
right here in my heart

Your spirit soars so free
And although it’s hard for me
I believe losing you was meant to be

So I hold on to you tight
Hold on through the pain tonight
Cause we were stronger all together
Than we could ever be apart
I’ll hold on to you forever
Right here in my heart

Always and forever with Love, Mom

Posted by Gina Champagne on 7/10/2010 11:40:03 PM

We are going to continue to do the blanket sales. We are very proud of the comfort we are able to bring those who are recovering from a double lung transplant. We don't profit from the blanket sales we just make enough to keep it going.

Our newest goal for this year is to purchase a therapy vest for a Cystic fibrosis patient. The vest helps the patient to receive therapy unattended. The vest helps to loosen mucus from the lungs helping to clear the air way. The vest is very expensive it costs between $16000-$20000. We would like to see the first vest go to someone in our area. We will try and buy as any vests or other items to help those fighting this Cystic Fibrosis. We have to start somewhere. If you can help in anyway please contact us. This is a very big goal for us to achieve and we are going to need a lot of help.

We could use more blankets at a low price.
We would like fundraising ideas.
We could use cash donations.

Thank you for you support

Posted by Sara Champagne on 4/14/2010 11:21:31 AM

Eva and 65_redroses have done so much for the CF community. We are so sad that we lost Eva. We are happy that she is now able to breathe with no tubes. She no longer has to take medication. She is free!! We will miss her journal entries. We have a opportunity to say good buy to Eva. Her family is going to broadcast her celebration of life on April 30th. We will post the time and more detail when we have them. Thank you everyone for sending Eva things for her wall of love. I asked and the response was overwhelming. She really did find a lot of comfort in all the mail she was given.

Posted by Sara Champagne on 4/14/2010 11:20:06 AM

As active members of the Taber community for the last six years we have been aware of the generosity of the residents, however even we were in awe of the immense care and generosity we experienced last Saturday evening at the Star’s Taber Fundraising Auction. We run a non-profit foundation called Breathe Life. This foundation was formed to support, both financially and emotionally, sufferers of Cystic Fibrosis and those that care for them. Our goal this year is to buy a Therapy Vest which retail for $16-20,000 each. Unfortunately Alberta Health Care does not cover these vests.

Last Saturday at the invitation of the Star’s Taber Auction Fundraiser we set up a table to hopefully sell some blankets (to learn about our blanket program please visit our website) and share information regarding the terrible disease Cystic Fibrosis. Further, and the first of the immense generosity we experienced, the organizers offered to auction off two Breathe Life Blankets. To our astonishment both blankets sold for $450 each. We were overwhelmed. After the auction we sold every blanket we had with us (30) and have orders for 30 more. Many people paid us more money then we were asking for our blankets, and many people just donated money.

We want to thank everyone who organized the Stars Auction Fundraiser. Thank you for letting us be a part of such an amazing night. Thank you to everyone who bought a blanket, and donated money! We are that much closer to our BIG goal. Taber community you rock!

Sara and Mathieu Champagne

Posted by Sara Champagne on 4/14/2010 10:23:33 AM

We are working on redoing BREATHELIFE. It is going to take some time but it is our new years resolution. If you have any fundraising ideas or ideas for the site let us know. Thank you everyone for your on going support. We have another dream for 2010, we want to fundraise to purchase a vibrating vest for a CFer in need. We will keep you posted on that.

Posted by Sara Champagne on 1/21/2010 12:46:17 PM

I would like to encourage everyone to watch 65_RedRoses. It is a beautiful documentry of a girl going through a lung transplant. It is all real. All the moments you see of Eva are all candid. The camera was at the right place at the right time. You can watch her video on utube. So worth the 45 min. Make sure you have a box of kleenex your going to need it!! xo

Posted by Sara Champagne on 1/21/2010 12:38:36 PM