I believe my six-pack is helping me fight CF
Magazine cover star Ben Mudge explains why fitness is his biggest weapon against the incurable illness
FOR ordinary office-bound men, the shots of barechested hunks on the front of the bestselling Men’s Health magazine can seem a bit ridiculous. How do you get a torso that looks as if it’s been carved from rock? Do the models care about anything other than muscles?
But given that hundreds of men enter the cover model competition — the male equivalent of winning Miss World — it is obviously a very big deal.
Step forward Ben Mudge, one of five 2012 finalists and yet another example of masculine perfection. Or is he?
The 22-year- old could not be more different from the other entrants. Ben is now the poster boy — the new look,
A BREAKTHROUGH drug for a rare form of cystic fibrosis has been shown in trials to transform the lives of the most ill patients. Kalydeco (ivacafto), is the first of its kind and alters a protein on the defective gene.
One patient to have experienced an astonishing return to health is Georgina Petrie, who just weeks ago was confined to a wheelchair.
The 22-year-old, whose lungs had been damaged by infections caused by the mucus that is the hallmark of cystic fibrosis, was struggling to breathe.
Her consultants believed that a lung transplant was her only hope.
Within a week of starting on Kalydeco, she no longer needed an oxygen mask to aid her breathing. A week later, she had started cycling, swimming and taking long walks.
‘It all happened so quickly, I’m finding it hard to take in,’ she says. ‘A few weeks ago I was very poorly and could do nothing.’
CF is caused by any one of several defects in a protein, cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), which regulates fluid flow within cells and affects components of sweat, digestive fluids, and mucus.
The CFTR mutation i n CF patients allows too much salt and water into cells, which results in a build-up of thick, sticky mucus in the body’s tubes and passageways that damages the lungs, digestive system and other organs.
One type of mutation, G551D, is found in about five per cent of cases of CF, and Kalydeco is effective for these patients.
The drug thins the mucus, preventing further damage and allowing the lungs to heal.
In the past two years, patients in London and Belfast have been given the drug as part of a trial. It has now been licensed for European use but is not yet approved in Ireland.
The daily tablet is estimated to cost €250,000 per year per patient. About ten per cent of patients have the G551D form of CF in Ireland, but US manufacturer Vertix is already trialling a new drug that will be effective in 50 per cent of all CF cases.
Patients have to stay on the drug permanently for it to continue to work.
Georgina was prescribed the new drug with the support of her doctor. Prior to this she was on a cocktail of 20 drugs, nebulisers, inhalers and oxygen.
Dr Jane Davies, a respiratory consultant, headed a recent trial of the drug. She says: ‘This is the biggest development in CF for years. Short of finding a cure, this is the next best thing.’