Breathing through a Straw is a memoir of a father's fight to do absolutely everything to save his son's life. On the day of our son's birth, my wife and I had unknowingly granted Cody a death sentence. He has the worst genetic combination of Cystic Fibrosis genes, delivered to him by his genetic family tree. A many-generational Molotov cocktail that would kill him. We wouldn't learn this until our son was 6 months old.

When Cody Sheehan was 6 months old his parents Mark and Bridget received the devastating news that they had given their smiling baby boy a genetic death sentence in the form of cystic fibrosis. They were terrified to learn that, at the time, a child with cystic fibrosis would be lucky to survive to their teenage years. The family's world was turned upside down and they were set on a path to find new treatments and support the efforts to find a cure, all while trying to give Cody as normal a childhood as possible. With good humour and emotion Mark Sheehan tells a story familiar to anyone with a loved one battling a chronic and life-threatening illness: its impact on all family members and the constant cycle of medications, therapies, treatments, and hospitalisations. For sufferers like Cody, every breath required to stay alive was like breathing through a straw. Following successful transplant surgery Cody is something of a miracle--living a full life in his thirties. Cody and his story provide living, breathing hope for others with cystic fibrosis. For Cody and for his fellow 'cystas' and 'fibros, ' the next best thing to a cure is hope.