Kinnear: Hope, Turning CF Into ‘Cure Found’ and Betting on the Long Shot – insidelacrosse.com

Its a Friday night in February, and Im talking on the phone with Mark McGovern, the father of Bryant attackman Logan McGovern.

His son lives with cystic fibrosis. He thrives. Hes a starting college athlete and a team leader and by all accounts everything youd want in a son, brother and teammate.

I explained to Mark my personal connection with CF before we started talking about his son.

About an hour into the conversation, he asked, What was your cousins name?

Her name Mandy. She died in January 2012 after her battle with CF, a rare genetic disease. She was two months younger than me only 26 at the time of her death.

With CF, it was a constant battle. I remember a sleepover at her house when we were around elementary school-age, us kids all sleeping on the floor in the family room, when she had a CF episode. Her coughing got worse and worse, and the at-home breathing remedies didnt help. My brother and I had to rush home in the middle of the night; she and my aunt went to the hospital.

There was a constant array of nebulizers and breathing treatments masks and gadgets no child should be so familiar with. As she got older, her lung function got progressively worse. She eventually needed to cart around a canister of oxygen until her lungs were so battered and the transplant list was so long that she passed away.

Thank you, Mark said. People like her, they all participated in what ended up happening for someone like Logan. We wouldn't have known what we knew about CF without what she went through back in the day.

I understand this is a dark start to a piece for a lacrosse website, but its meant to share a story of hope: A few years after she died, the first medicines to attack cystic fibrosis were gaining approval. Logan McGovern was part of a smaller subset of CF patients for which the first drugs were effective. He received the medicine, and his lung function improved almost instantly, and he went on to have an illustrious high school lacrosse career at Darien (Conn.) and is currently thriving in a starting role at Bryant.

He allowed me to share his story here.

When my cousin had CF, living until your mid-20s was the norm. Mark McGovern had a childhood friend who had it and died at 16. My cousin did the right things. She did her hours of treatments each day. In high school, she was featured in a local newspaper for working as a lifeguard at a community pool despite the disorder. The timing was just off for her.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Boomer Esiason Foundation and others have brought a rare disease to the forefront. The CF walks my family participated in when I was little made some difference.

Heres a call to action: May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month. Please visit cff.org or esiason.org and learn a little bit. And watch and appreciate Logan on the field.

You know, it would be a hell of a story if Logan and Coach Pressler won a national championship together, Mark says. A long shot, but, you know, Logan was a long shot, still is a long shot.

Read more about Logan here. He and Bryant will play in the NEC Semifinals on Thursday.

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Kinnear: Hope, Turning CF Into 'Cure Found' and Betting on the Long Shot - insidelacrosse.com