THE BONNELL FOUNDATION
LIVING WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS: I’m Laura Bonnell and This is My Story
BY LAURA BONNELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE BONNELL FOUNDATION
Since the age of 12, I knew I would be a news reporter — covering breaking news, feel good stories, and educating the public on so many different topics. The curiosity I had, and desire to get answers, is what made me a great reporter, and why people trusted me to get accurate information. I had no idea at the time just how important being a news reporter would be in my life. In 1989, I took a year off from news reporting to do some public relations work for the Washtenaw United Way (WUW). That year the gene that causes cystic fibrosis was discovered. Dr. Frances Collins, of the University of Michigan (currently Director of the National Institute of Health) was recognized as a news conference for his contributions in the Genome Project that discovered the cystic fibrosis gene. I was at the news conference on behalf of WUW in case reporters needed more information — that news conference was my first encounter with cystic fibrosis. Fast forward to 1993, I was newly married to my husband Joe and I had left TV reporting for an all-news radio station in Detroit. Life was perfect. Our first child, Molly, was born in 1994. She was happy and looked healthy, but something was wrong. I knew it. Molly’s pediatrician dismissed my concerns and told me I was a first time Mom, and that I should just “go back to work”. I listened to that doctor, but I just knew something wasn’t right. Molly had classic CF symptoms — greasy stool, distended stomach, and she tasted salty when we kissed her. In my mind, I was right
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about this. So, I demanded Molly be tested for CF — I was doing a lot of reading, and I was convinced that Molly had cystic fibrosis. At 3-months-old Molly was given a sweat test (it measures the concentration of Chloride that is excreted in sweat — a standard test for cystic fibrosis). I was driving to a breaking news story when the doctor called me with the news I already knew: Molly had CF. The doctor apologized for not believing me. Since then, we’ve both learned a lot, and she is my friend to this day.
Diagnosis Day: Joe and I sat on the porch, drinking a beer and crying. We had so much to learn about CF, but what we knew for sure was that Molly was going to have a normal life. This disease wasn’t going to hold her back. It was a difficult decision, but we decided to have a second child. We knew there was a 1 in 4 chance of having a child with CF with each pregnancy, but how could it happen twice, right? Our second daughter, Emily, was also born with CF. We stopped at two, and we’re happy to have these beautiful girls in our lives.
