Hey there! Thank you for visiting my fundraising page for the CF Foundation. I just want to inform and update my supporters on what’s going on with me. The last couple of days of the ride from Detroit to Chicago I started to have some problems with my achilles tendon. So bad that the last day I could barely pedal and putting shoes (other than bike shoes) and socks on was not an option. So I got the first doctors appointment I could on Saturday am and was told what I did NOT want to hear. I cannot continue on by bike to California for the Emily to Ellen adventure. The key word here though is bike. The show will go on!

I’m a strong believer that things do indeed happen for a reason and after a brief chat with Dr. Wayne Dyer I am refilled with hope. After wiping some tears, a lot actually, my mind started racing and a Vespa scooter popped up. So now I am on the hunt for a Vespa to take cross country! It has been my dream since the Ellen Show hit the air to meet her and get on the show so I can share my story to raise awareness and funds for the CF Foundation. Also I have been coined as Ellen's Doppleganger. My mission in life is to help patients with CF have the best quality of life possible and eventually, to help find a cure. The only way we can do this is by raising money and getting it to the CFF. The CFF is the organization who is funding treatments that are proven to be effective and changing lives each and ever day.

Living with CF isn't the easiest thing in the world to live with. I spend a few hours each day doing chest physical therapy, breathing treatments and swallowing 40+ pills. Also a couple times a year I am hospitalized for IV antibiotics to treat recurring lung infections. All of this does not stop me though, instead it keeps me rocking. In the past year I have completed two half marathons (13.1 miles) and a few 5 and 10k races. Once I coupled exercise with my daily CF routine my pulmonary function has risen and I am feeling very strong and very healthy!

Cystic fibrosis is a devastating genetic disease that affects tens of thousands of children and adults in the United States. I was diagnosed with CF when i was 18 months old...I recently turned 27 and I'm feeling great! When I was diagnosed my parents were told I probably wouldn't live long enough to graduate from high school. Currently life expectancy is around 37 years old and that is not acceptable! Research and care supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is making a huge difference in extending the quality of life for those with CF. Please help rock cystic fibrosis so hard that one day it will stand for cure found.

Again thank you for visiting this page and donating to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. They are the reason I am alive today and we will not stop rocking until we find a cure! Rock CF, Emily Schaller