AUBURN — Volunteers rallied at the Auburn Public Library on Monday night to help raise money for a young woman in desperate need of a double-lung transplant.

Refreshments were set, and the four-person board of the Second Chances Foundation waited eagerly by the door with information and recruitment forms.

Second Chances is a nonprofit foundation established to help Auburn’s Aimee Driscoll, a 28-year-old with cystic fibrosis.

Driscoll’s mother, Carole Waite, said Aimee was diagnosed at 16 months. Waite said she was told Aimee would be lucky to make it through elementary school.

Then, Waite said, she was told her daughter would never graduate high school.

Driscoll graduated and completed 1½ years of college before her cystic fibrosis became too unmanageable.

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A wife and a mother of a 4-year-old son diagnosed with autism, Driscoll has seen her health decline since last spring after a bout of pneumonia, Waite said.

She said her daughter has been on oxygen and intravenous medications with three hospitalizations since the spring. Her current lung function is only 19 to 20 percent. Currently, according to Waite, Driscoll has a hard time getting from one room to the next; lack of oxygen compounds the anxiety she already feels about her condition.

“She accepts everything,” Waite said, but reality and the disappointment of a restricted life have been hard on her morale.

However, Driscoll has found a knowledgeable friend, a man from Windham suffering the same fate. Josh Beardsley is currently waiting for a double transplant as well.

Waite said Beardsley and Driscoll have been getting each other through the past month’s trials with cystic fibrosis.

As volunteers arrived, Waite said she was expecting about a dozen to show up that she knew of. Although fundraising events draw enough volunteer support for the events, the foundation hopes to gather more people to take care of the behind-the-scenes duties.

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“It’s been just over a year, and we’ve had several events with great turnout,” Waite said.

She said the foundation has put on a bachelor auction and have put on an obstacle 5K race at Lost Valley.

The foundation plans on repeating the bachelor and bachelorette auctions, whereby bidders vie for a date. Harvest Hills Farms has also offered use of their grounds for another obstacle race at no charge.

With family spread throughout the country, Second Chances is not taking any chances, casting a broad net outside Maine.

Currently, they have a Lobster for Lungs dinner slated for Aug. 10 in Santa Cruz,  Calif., with help from local wineries, as well as a bachelor auction and salon makeover in Rhode Island.

Driscoll’s brother, Trevor Brooks, a former Navy Seabee, said he has also reached out to his old Navy buddies in Gulfport, Miss., for a possible fundraiser.

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“We try to have at least one event every other month — we try to focus on the more unique stuff,” Brooks said, wanting to keep people interested and not lose momentum.

On July 20, Waite said the Second Annual Cystic Fibrosis Pig Roast and Ride has chosen Second Chances to be the beneficiary of this year’s proceeds.

Bikers will start at L-A Harley-Davidson at 11 a.m. and arrive at 134 Center Road, Litchfield, for live music, burgers, hot dogs, beans and soda. There is no charge as this event is run purely by donations.

If you would like to help Second Chances Foundation or find out more about upcoming events, visit aimeescause.org or contact Carole Waite at 364-3275 or Trevor Brooks at 713-6221.

dmcintire@sunjournal.com


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