In June, 2025, Andrew achieved an ambitious journey to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. While training for the climb, he raised nearly $5,000 in support of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital, specifically for the CF Mental Health Fund.
Diagnosed with CF at just three months old, Andrew faced serious health challenges early in life, including a collapsed lung and chronic infections. Despite being told he might not live past 17, he remained active, committed to treatments, and excelled in sports. By age 12, hospitalizations became an annual occurrence, and complications like liver cirrhosis, diabetes, and lung bleeds followed.
Once Andrew reached 18, he transitioned from BC Children’s Hospital to the care of St. Paul’s Hospital, a national leader in CF treatment and research. At 37, he underwent a life-saving double lung transplant.
The lung transplant took a significant physical and mental toll. A year later, a motorcycle accident left him with multiple fractures and titanium implants. Yet he says that nothing compares to the emotional weight of the transplant experience. Andrew credits the CF team at St. Paul’s as instrumental in providing the support and assurance he needed to prepare for and recover from the surgery.
“Having the knowledge of your mortality at a young age and going through life threatening events plays in your mind over time and it affects you, and those around you,” says Andrew. Having received critical mental health support from the CF team, he wants to ensure that help continues to be there for others.
“The Adult CF Clinic [at St. Paul’s] has been a constant in my adult life and will be for the rest of it. This was a way for me to show my gratitude.”
Andrew Brownell, grateful patient