When Jerry Lewis takes the stage again on Labor Day 2009 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, thousands of people who suffer from the same lung disease as he will be watching - and not just to hear the funny things he'll say. They'll be looking for inspiration from the funny man who suffers from a not-so-funny and little known fatal lung disease.
Lewis disclosed several years ago that he is dying from Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF), a disease that suffocates its victims by scarring the lungs. The disease is irreversible, untreatable, and invariably fatal. Most patients die within three years of diagnosis, which is why many are looking to the celebrity for clues to his survival for so many years with the disease. They are also looking to him to speak out about PF, a disease that is barely known by much of the public and is in desperate need of increased research funding to find ways to successfully treat it.
"I have to say, I'm curious," said patient Ellen Foley. "There is no FDA-approved treatment for this disease and many of us are going downhill very quickly. He doesn't seem to be and I'm really happy for him. As for me, I'm on supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day."