She has cystic fibrosis. She's not letting it stop her from paddling across the Gulf Stream

Her quest to paddleboard from the Bahamas to Florida across the Gulf Stream started with an online video.

Kim Iasielo stumbled upon the video last summer, one showing a hammerhead shark following a woman on a paddleboard. That intrigued the 44-year-old mother of two from Burlington. Then she learned that the woman was participating in an 80-plus-mile event called The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis. In the event, paddlers of all kinds travel under their own power from Bimini, Bahamas, to Lake Worth Beach, Florida, to raise money and awareness for patients and families affected by the genetic disease.

All this sent Iasielo down a "rabbit hole," she said. She's lived with cystic fibrosis all her life, and she just had to know more.

Iasielo learned that The Crossing for CF supports Piper's Angels Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis, which raises money directly for people who struggle with cystic fibrosis and the costs associated with it. Iasielo was hooked: "I fell in love with that philosophy immediately."

Iasielo got online and bought a paddleboard and the equipment she needed to paddle on the ocean and she signed up for this year's Crossing.

"It was one of those things where I felt like it was divine intervention," Iasielo said. "I was like, I have to do this."

As young girl, Kim Iasielo took cystic fibrosis head on

Iasielo had never been on a paddleboard before. But after years of dealing with the uncertainties of cystic fibrosis, she had plenty of experience of going full tilt at other physical challenges. Even making past her first birthday was against the odds.

"When I was born, I was really, really sick as a baby," Iasielo said. She was jaundiced and her abdomen was extended. Doctors discovered that her bowel had burst; emergency surgery saved her live. After the surgery, she still wasn't healthy.

Her grandmother first noticed the signs that deeper issues were affecting the infant Iasielo's health.

"I had a cousin who was born with CF, and unfortunately, he ended up dying at age 10, the same year I was born," Iasielo said. Her grandmother noticed the red flags in Iasielo, and doctors ended up immediately treating her for cystic fibrosis, even before an official diagnosis.

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects the cells that produce mucus, sweat and digestive juices, according to the Mayo Clinic website. Normally, these fluids are thin and slippery, but for people with CF, they become sticky and thick, and can clog up organs such as the lungs and pancreas. The disease affects people in different ways, but it is progressive and often fatal.

But people with CF are living longer than ever, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The life expectancy for patients born between 2017 and 2021 is 53 years. A decade earlier, it was 38.

Iasielo always has been diligent in her treatments. That meant taking medications and using a nebulizer from a very young age and undergoing physical therapy.

When she was very young, she underwent percussive therapy twice a day, meaning one of her parents had to physically pound her back and other areas of her body to dislodge the thick mucus. "They would have to do it for about 30 minutes," Iasielo said. "They had to have arms of iron."

When she was a teenager, she was able to get her first therapy vest. It's a vest that inflates and is attached to an air compressor, Iasielo said. "It shoots out the air in a vibration motion, and it loosens everything up. So it shakes you about 30 minutes. It doesn't hurt, and it's not physically demanding."

The dedication to her health has had an impact, she said, but she believes that her other strategy, to do as much as possible to be active, also is key to her continued health and happiness. It started with her parents' attitude when she was a kid.

"I'm super thankful for my parents," Iasielo said. "I never heard, 'You're sick. You can't do this. ... If you want to try it, try it. They didn't set boundaries out of fear."

She was an athlete as a girl, a top sprinter at her high school and basketball player. She spent years as a ballet dancer.

Iasielo decided that she would simply not accept limitations, so she would do her treatments judiciously and grab as much of life as she could. "This is (treatments) something you have to do. And if you don't, you'll feel like garbage. And I didn't want to feel like garbage, so I did it. It never inhibited me as a kid. It doesn't inhibit me now. It is just part of who I am."

Being an active and vibrant participant in all life has to offer was key to her strategy.

Paddling helps Kim Iasielo raise awareness about cystic fibrosis and you can help

Iasielo is training hard for The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis. When weather allows, she's out on the board paddling across Browns Lake in Burlington, located across the street from where she lives with her husband and two children. She typically goes out four to five times a week, she said, sometimes for four or more hours at a time.

For never having paddled before committing to The Crossing, it's a matter of happy luck that she's grown to enjoy her time on the paddleboard.

"I absolutely love it," Iasielo said. "I'm probably in the best shape I've even been from paddleboarding. It's absolutely amazing."

Iasielo paddles in addition to other regular activities that help keep her fit and healthy. She regularly walks and rides a bicycle, especially with her kids. She runs a few miles a week on a treadmill.

Training in the winter got challenging, she said.

Iasielo lifted weights and used a balance board to compensate for the lack of paddling time, "but it's just not the same. ... Luckily we didn't have a cold winter, and as soon as the ice broke on the lake, I was paddling," she said. "The neighbors must have thought I was absolutely crazy."

Originally she intended to paddle the 80-plus miles on her own, estimating that it would take 14 or 15 hours under good weather conditions and if not delayed by sharks. But a childhood friend and her husband wanted to join her on the quest, Iasielo said, so they will be paddling as a relay team. Another friend, a charter fishing boat captain from Chicago, will be using his boat to escort the team for safety purposes.

Their calling their team the Pulmonary Paddlers and Iasielo has started an Instagram page of the same name.

The other component of the event is the fundraising effort. To raise money for the cause, Iasielo has started a GoFundMe.com page at https://gofund.me/a35fe98f. Her goal was to raise $10,000, and as of Wednesday, she had exceeded it by $35.

Underneath it all, though, is the message that Iasielo aims to send to people with cystic fibrosis, especially children. But it applies to anybody: "I wasn't supposed to live past age 14," Iasielo said. "Then it was age 40, and here I am 44. You just have to keep a positive mindset and put in the work. If one child with CF gets that, then it's worth me going out there and telling my story to the world."

Keith Uhlig is a regional features reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin based in Wausau. Contact him at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Burlington woman participates in The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis