Fight2Breathe
Breathing is a full-time job.
It turned survival into purpose.
I'm Caleigh
I was born with cystic fibrosis, at a time when the life expectancy was 18.
I've spent more years inside hospitals, than home. I've undergone two double-lung transplants. I've been told more than once that I wouldn't survive.
I did.
I'm still here because I learned early how to fight for my life, my care, and my voice. Fight2Breathe began as survival. It became purpose. And today, it exists so no one navigating illness has to do it alone.
“I have been fighting my whole life and I'm not done yet.”
The Journey
A life measured not in years, but in fights won.
The Beginning
Born with Cystic Fibrosis. Diagnosed at birth—which was rare back then. Most infants went undiagnosed and untreated. The median life expectancy that year was 18. When my parents found out that salty ocean air helped thin the mucus in my lungs, they moved us as close to the waves as possible.
The Struggle
CF is progressive. My childhood was healthy, but my adult years told a different story. Hospital became my first home, my apartment became my second. I went years cycling through—admitted for two or three weeks, out for one, then back in. The nurses and doctors became my family. Every day I thought about getting my independence back.
The Wait
At 22, my lung function dropped to 16%. I lost almost 30 pounds. I was living on supplemental oxygen and a feeding tube. My doctors told me a double-lung transplant was my only option for survival. I was listed, and then I waited. Waiting is its own kind of fight.
New Lungs
October 20th. First double-lung transplant. I got some of my old routines back—walking to get coffee, going to farmers markets, caring for my dog. But transplant tested me too. An abscess in my left lung. Respiratory failure. A life flight. ECMO. A medically induced coma. I had to relearn how to hold my head up, swallow, walk, talk. Everything.
Love
I went into organ rejection shortly after my one-year breathday. Within months I was back on oxygen, back on my feeding tube, unable to walk even a few feet. My lung function dropped to 14%. My center told me I wasn't a candidate for a redo. Their recommendation was palliative care. But in the middle of all that, I married my best friend, surrounded by 150 people who loved us.
Again
My husband searched nationwide for any center that would take me. We packed everything and moved across California. UCLA gave me a chance when no one else would. After five and a half months living in the hospital, I received my second double-lung transplant on June 8th. When I woke up and took my first breath, I understood for the first time what breathing was actually supposed to feel like.
The Mission
I breathe deep now. Effortlessly. But I'll never forget the moments I struggled for oxygen, or the people who showed up when it mattered. I started Fight2Breathe because this fight shouldn't be figured out alone. The information, the support, the community—it should already exist. So I'm building it.
The Podcast
Our Fight to Breathe
This podcast exists because the conversations I needed didn't exist. What it's really like to wait for lungs. How to talk to your family when you're scared. The things no one prepares you for and no one says out loud.
Each episode brings together people living with CF, their families, caregivers, and care teams for honest conversations about life with chronic disease.
Join the Fight
Awareness. Research. Community. Every action matters.