When joining the Health Economics group at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the biotech leader with 4 disease-modifying therapies for Cystic Fibrosis, I came in with a rudimentary misunderstanding that CF was a Caucasian disease limited to the Western world. A week into the job, I found myself leafing through old documents on my hard drive late one night and came across the personal statement I wrote for graduate school. The closing statement reads: “I hope to be a part of policy-making addressing the systematic challenges I have learned underpin the familiar and troubling inequities in the regions that I am most passionate about.” As the night drew on, I combed the literature for any mention of Cystic Fibrosis research in the MENA region. How many patients are there? Where are they? What care is available to them? A switch flipped, and within minutes I drafted an email to Christine, the CEO of the Middle East CF Association (MECFA). The Palestine Marathon project was born the next day.

Coming to Vertex has opened my eyes to a patient community that quite frankly, I didn’t know existed before. Children who, if they are lucky, grow into adults who struggle to breathe every day, living with a rare disease that they did not choose to see coming. And yet, healthcare is not just about how well the medicine works. Diseases like CF not only impact the patient but their entire family—socially as well as financially. Politics, economics, ethics, and medicine to are inextricably and irreversibly linked. Now add to that the complexity of living in Palestine.

I am running to highlight the presence, burden, and unmet need with Cystic Fibrosis care in Palestine. I am also running to highlight the beauty, resilience, and strength of the multi-faceted collaboration between non-profits, private sector stakeholders, governments, and the broader community that is driving tangible change here and now.

It is truly an honor and a privilege to see your professional drives and your personal passions combine so seamlessly. 200 patients. 200 nebulizers.  Let’s run this marathon to give breath—to give every child with CF in Palestine back a semblance of their childhood. Let’s do this together.