Drug gives CF patients ‘their lives back’

A mother who went into politics in a bid to improve the life of her young child got the news she desperately wanted yesterday — that a cystic fibrosis wonder drug will be available to patients in Ireland from next month.

Fine Gael TD Áine Collins was one of a number of people who openly wept when Health Minister James Reilly announced that Kalydeco, a groundbreaking new medicine for the treatment of CF, will be available from Mar 1 for patients with a specific strain of the disease. Ms Collins previously said she was considering emigrating to the US to avail of treatment for her daughter Lily, 4, who has CF, because the services here were so poor.

Yesterday, she said “as a parent, all my hopes and dreams have come true” and that the new drug would “literally change her [Lily’s] life”.