Plantation teacher runs to fight cystic fibrosis

Plantation, Florida – Trisha DePasquale is getting ready to enter the New York City marathon this weekend.

She’ll be running for “Team Boomer,” part of the Boomer Esiason Foundation. The football great is her husband’s uncle.

When he was 2 years old, his son, Gunner Esiason, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

“So for as long as I’ve been a part of my husband’s family, finding a cure for CF has been really important to me. I see the different things Gunner has to do, the different treatments and it’s just really important to me that we can find a cure,” DePasquale said.

She teaches kindergarten at Our Savior Lutheran School in Plantation. So far, she’s raised more than $3,000 on her own. The school recently pitched in just over $1,200 towards her effort.

“Team Boomer has a designated amount of spots each year in the New York City marathon, and I was supposed to run this in 2020, but as we know in 2020 all of the major sporting events got canceled, and so, I was deferred to this year,” she said.

30,000 Americans are living with CF and more than 1,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Fundraising efforts like DePasquale’s have helped finance many medical breakthroughs in recent years and enabled people with CF to live longer and more fulfilling lives.