Dottie Lessard, 44 and living with cystic fibrosis, continues to achieve and re-invent herself 16 years post-double-lung transplant.
Dottie is an athlete and life coach, a published author (Seven Letters That Saved My Life), and founder of Dottie’s Dream, a nonprofit organization. Most importantly, Dottie is the proud mother of a seven-year-old son, Liam.
Dottie grew up in New York and was diagnosed with CF at six weeks of age. She started playing basketball at an early age, and as she got sicker, she always found a way to exercise, even if it was only five minutes every day. “Exercise empowers me,” she says.
“I was listed for a double lung transplant in 1992 and stayed motivated by thinking of all the great things I would do post-transplant,” Dottie says. Post-transplant, Dottie continued to focus on being an athlete and started competing in the Transplant Games in 1996. She now exercises 45 to 60 minutes every day.
Dottie’s words of wisdom for people with CF… believe! … find a balance … stay positive.
This “LIVING. BREATHING. SUCCEEDING.” Podcast/Vodcast is made possible through an unrestricted educational grant from Genentech to the Boomer Esiason Foundation.