Breathing Room

This book tells the story of Beth Gobeil’s life as a mother of a son with cystic fibrosis. Things took a dramatic turn, as her son Donovan was faced with what the family had always known was coming, a lung transplant or death. Healthy undamaged lung donations are very rare. The Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation lobbies hard to get more people to commit to The Canadian Donor Program. “My husband and I found ourselves in the midst of a parent’s nightmare,” said Beth, “Our 20-year old son was in dire need of new lungs, as years of fighting infection due to cystic fibrosis had scarred his own lungs so badly that they no longer functioned. As he lay in the ICU breathing with the help of a ventilator, we knew his life was drawing to a close. We grieved that we would not be able to witness him meet his life’s goals, those things every young person dreams of: going to post-secondary school, starting a career, falling in love…he deserved another chance at life.