2 young girls in Colorado Springs fight hidden disease

At first glance, Kennedy and Regan Vance of Colorado Springs look like two healthy little girls.

“I love you Kennedy,” Regan to her little sister while they played on the slide.

But in reality, both are fighting an invisible disease–Cystic Fibrosis.

“This mutation causes sticky-like mucus to build up in their lungs and their pancreas and other vital organs. Sometimes it leads to lung infections and chronic health problems,” said the girls’ mother, Kelsey Vance.

Since there’s no cure yet, Regan has to wear a vest that’s hooked to a machine to do a treatment called airway clearance.

“I got to do this vest thing so I get like the sickness out of me,” said Regan.

“This keeps them healthy and shakes the mucus out of the lungs. We do this [when they’re] healthy or sick; if they’re sick they do it more. Treatments are about an hour a day. If you didn’t do this it basically would, their lungs would be filled up with mucus and would cause serious problems it’s like breathing through a straw,” said Kelsey Vance.

Kennedy isn’t big enough, so mom does it by hand.

The Vance family and nearly 30,000 Americans are waiting for a cure.

“Dollars for research are very important. A lot changes day to day for people with CF. The [Great Strides Cystic Fibrosis] Foundation is doing a lot of work in the research field. It’s a rare disease and there’s not a lot,” said Matt Crouse, the development director of the foundation in the Rocky Mountain Region.

For that reason, Kelsey and her husband, Andrew, are inviting the community to the Great Strides 5k on May 19th.

“There is no government funding so we have to take an active role in that,” said Andrew Vance.

For them, the more people the better. It’s one step closer to changing CF’s meaning to cure fibrosis.