Andy Lipman | Source | Author and Advocate with cystic fibrosis at CF Warrior Project

Andy Lipman was born and diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in 1973 and is the author of five books, all primarily focused on the disease. Additionally, Lipman is a motivational speaker who goes around the world and speaks on the importance of demonstrating a positive attitude, having a sense of humor, and staying physically fit to be successful in the battle against depression, anxiety, and CF. He is currently on the Georgia Chapter Board of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and a member of the National Corporate Engagement Committee Leadership Board for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

In 2000, he, along with his friends and family, started Wish for Wendy, a co-ed charity softball tournament in Alpharetta, Georgia, in memory of his older sister, who passed away from cystic fibrosis in 1970, three years prior to his birth. Wendy only lived sixteen days, and therefore, the two siblings never met. The event has raised more than $4.5 million to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

CF is a genetic, incurable disease that causes deficiencies in the respiratory, digestive, and even reproductive systems, as well as problems with temperature regulation and fluid balance. The median life expectancy for CF patients in the United States hovers around 50 years. CF warrior and author Lipman, who turns 50 this year, has defied all odds to become a college graduate, Olympic torch bearer, runner, husband, father, advocate, and author.

Andy has just released his fifth book The CF Warrior Project, Volume 2: Celebrating Our Cystic Fibrosis Community. This first-of-its-kind, inspirational series of memoirs about people who live with the life-changing diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF) and those who advocate for those who fight the disease. The book is essentially a love letter to the CF community and the faith and fight each of the Warriors has to persevere every day. All profits from the book are being donated to CF-related charities.

Lipman is a strong proponent of being compliant both with a regular exercise routine and a consistent daily medical regimen. The latter he learned from his parents, Charles and Eva Lipman, who rarely, if ever, missed a day of administrating his postural drainage therapy or forcing him to take his enzymes growing up. His daily routine includes working out with weights for thirty to forty minutes, running 5Ks, doing two hours of CF treatments, and taking forty to fifty pills.

Lipman credits physical fitness, medical breakthroughs like CFTR modulator Trikafta, and a strong support system for helping him to live to the age of forty-nine, more than triple the number he and those born during that time period were expected to live.

Lipman's motto is, "Live your dreams and love your life." He believes that every single warrior in this book, far and away, has demonstrated those words.