NEIGHBORS: 9-year-old Maddie Luke leading fight on cystic fibrosis

Published 4:30 pm Friday, October 25, 2019

Maddie Luke is an adorable 9-year-old little girl with beautiful hazel eyes who loves hanging out with her friend Hollyn, enjoys watching videos on YouTube, loves eating at Saki Sushi, playing with her dog Charlie, and spending time with family.

Maddie is also a little girl with cystic fibrosis.

Maddie’s type of cystic fibrosis affects her lungs and digestive system. Because of this, she doesn’t digest proteins and fats and has to take enzymes to improve digestion. She swallows more than 140 pills a week to treat her cystic fibrosis, fighting bacterial infections that can take months to go away and undergoing breathing treatments at least twice a day to loosen the buildup of mucus in her lungs.

Maddie’s parents, Ashley Loper and Jordy Luke, learned that Maddie had cystic fibrosis just two weeks after her birth, plunging into a world of breathing treatments, medicine, and appointments with doctors. To raise awareness about cystic fibrosis Maddie’s family started organizing fun runs, 5K races and other fundraisers to raise money for a cure. One fundraiser is coming up on Saturday, Nov. 2, “Shine a Light On Cystic Fibrosis” at Lazy Acres Plantation in Chunky.

Three years ago through research, the drug Orkambi was discovered for treating the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis, the first drug out for Maddie’s gene type. Since being on this drug Maddie has shown tremendous improvement, Loper said.

“Maddie has had so many great developments the past two years,” Loper said. “She hasn’t been hospitalized since 2016, her PFT (lung function tests) have improved and also she has steadily been gaining much-needed weight, not an easy task for a CF patient, but she has gained and maintained, while also continuing to stay active.

“Just last week a brand new drug was released that is going to make big strides in the treatment of cystic fibrosis.”

All of this is possible because of all of the fundraising events held around the country, Loper said. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is not government funded, therefore it is up to the CF community and their family and friends to keep up the hard work in making these new drugs and advances in a cure possible.

“We are so thankful for all of the hard work put in by volunteers to make events like this possible,” Loper said. “We will not stop until CF stands for CURE FOUND!”

Maddie is currently on the cheer team at East Mississippi Cheer, dances with the Clarkdale Bulldog Beauties at the football games, and plays softball in the spring.

“Cystic fibrosis has not and will not keep this girl down,” Loper said.

Over the course of nine years, Maddie has done 13,797 breathing treatments; spent 32 days in the hospital; spent 3,425 hours on her vest, and has taken 67,365 pills.

Team Maddie along with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will host “Shine a Light On Cystic Fibrosis”  Nov. 2 at Lazy Acres.

• Registration begins at 6:30 p.m. Walk/glow run begins at 7 p.m.

• Donate/collect $25 to get one event t-shirt and one entry to Lazy Acres.

• Team Maddie Silent Auction 6-8 p.m.

• Fireworks 8 p.m.

Organizers encourage people to form teams and wear Halloween costumes or a business/office t-shirt. There will be a “Lunch for the Biggest Bunch” to be delivered the week following the event from Chicken Salad Chick for the biggest team.

For information, call 601-981-3100 or 601-938-9441 or visit https://shinealightoncf.passioncff.org/

Since 2012 the fundraiser has raised nearly $211,000 for the foundation – $31,377 was raised last year.

Seth Crocker a Marine

Seth Crocker, of Meridian, Miss., graduated Aug. 23 from Marine Boot Camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, as a PFC then went to Jacksonville, North Carolina for Marine Combat Training. He graduated there on Sept. 30 and is at NAS Pensacola for Avionics Training.

He is the son of Polly Crocker and Shannon Crocker and the grandson of Jeff and Karen Palmer, Charles and Lois Dean, Gayle and Johnny Crocker.

Crocker graduated from West Lauderdale High School.

Cheryl Owens writes the Neighbors column for The Meridian Star. Submit items to cowens@themeridianstar.com.