Jerry's Journey - The Transformer

I made it through my college years while competing in pole vaulting and ended up graduating cum laude from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor's degree in educational psychology. The cum laude wasn't as impressive as me outliving what doctors had predicted. And, not only was I living, but I was thriving mentally and physically and ready to take on the "real world" post college.

I guess going into the apparel industry with a degree in educational psychology made about as much sense as how well I was doing health wise. It's where I hung my hat for 27 years, eventually becoming the VP of Sales for Joseph Abboud Sportswear. Again, my CF was kept under wraps, but towards the end of my tenure there, the cat LEAPT out of the bag. I had traveled to Arizona for a business trip to see a client and was feeling what was normal for me. Things then went downhill from when I woke up in the middle of the night with what I can only describe as a deep rumbling in my chest. This was a somewhat common occurrence but it seemed a bit worse this time and oh boy was it.  I proceeded to cough up blood, a lot of blood, like a "red river" and thought, "well this isn't good" and I called the front desk to get me an ambulance. I was whisked away to the hospital and it was all so surreal. I was thinking, "crap this could be it" and I literally had parts of my life flashing before my eyes. Well, it obviously I survived and I spent three weeks out there healing as flying wasn't an option.  In fact, flying without oxygen from that point forward, pre-transplant, wasn't even an option. And yes, I had to finally fess up that I had CF.

This became an instrumental turning point for me on my road to reinvention In 2004, I made the very difficult decision to leave Joseph Abboud and for the first time ever, my docs put me on the transplant list. Part of the requirement for being on the list was fundraising. I started out by creating a marketing piece in association with the National Transplant Assistance Foundation that supports people who need to raise funds for transplants.  This led to volunteering and then a friend organized a fundraiser at the New York Athletic Club, a club/team I  competed  on for many years.  I went to the event and being there was a game changer. The best way I can describe this night is that I captured some lightening in a bottle.

It happened that one of the board members from the Boomer Esiason Foundation was a member at the NYAC and he invited me to meet Boomer. At the time, Boomers son Gunnar who has CF was a teenager and Boomer was surprised that I had CF –he'd never met someone my age with CF. He told me that if I ever wanted to volunteer to work at the Foundation, the door was open.

I think one of the most powerful tools in dealing with CF is the ability to reinvent yourself in life, in sports and in dealing with CF when you get to a point where you start to get sicker or can't do what you once could, you have to look at all your options and remember you have a choice. I wasn't going to stay at home on disability and not contribute to society. So, I took Boomer up on his offer and by the end of 2004 I started volunteering there.

Because I had isolated myself from the CF community over the years, I didn't really know anything about the world of CF and volunteering at Boomer's Foundation was a real awakening for me. As I got to know Boomer better, he gave me so much hope in just seeing how much he believes in people with CF. He also was very open and eager to learn about the adult world that I inhabited and how we could use this information to better the lives of anyone living with CF. The bottom line is, Boomer may be a former NFL MVP, but he is a parent first and he like all other CF parents, his biggest desire is for his child to outlive him.

And this was just the beginning of my reinvention. After all, I cannot fail…