A cystic fibrosis patient is set to go on a dream holiday to Disneyland thanks to game-changing treatment by a Glasgow hospital.
Shane Howard MacGill has been extremely careful throughout the pandemic and avoided getting covid until last week when he came down with the illness and had to be taken to hospital.
Shane, 39, believes he managed to overcome the virus thanks to 'miracle' Cystic Fibrosis (CF) drug Kaftrio and the support of specialists at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Speaking about how the game-changing drug saved his life, Shane said: "If the team at QEUH hadn’t managed to get me on Kaftrio, I don’t think I'd be here. My lungs would have been in a terrible condition to have to face covid.
"I was diagnosed later in life and a lot of damage had already been done so it was really important for me that I get the right treatment to look after my lungs."
Supermarket worker Shane was only diagnosed with the condition at 19.
Prior to that, his unusual lack of weight gain went unexplained, and it was only when he was in with pancreatitis that the doctors at RAH were able to diagnose him with the condition, which results in a build-up of thick sticky mucus in the body’s passageways.
Now, 20 years later, Shane has been able to live life with minimal worrying about his condition, which is largely kept at bay thanks to the care and support provided by the QEUH CF service, which looks after patients across Scotland.
Shane said: “The team at QEUH have become extended family to me. I really can’t thank them enough for helping me manage my condition and looking after me on the rare occasions it flares up. Thanks to them I can safely say ‘We’re going to Disneyland’.”
The QEUH was able to prescribe Kaftrio following a long campaign from patients and staff to have the drug made available on the NHS.
More than 250 CF patients within NHS GGC are now being treated with Kaftrio which, for those for whom it is clinically appropriate, confers a longer life expectancy and far fewer flare-ups of their illness.
Shane added: "I’m juggling a lot at the moment, and I'm thankful to be in the position to do that. I own my condition – it doesn’t own me. The Kaftrio treatment has been a real game-changer for me, and alongside my previous medication Symkevi, means that rather than ending up in hospital three or four times a year, COVID-19 aside, I only need additional support around once a year.”
