Community Corner
A Survivor's Strength
Double Lung Transplant Recipient Raises Funds While Confronting Cancer
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Every year, on a cold Chicago morning at the former John Hancock Building, thousands of people gather to do something extraordinary: climb 94 flights of stairs. They climb for breath, for hope, and for the thousands of people battling lung disease every day. Among them, you’ll find 64-year-old Steve Ferkau, a double-lung and kidney transplant survivor, leading his team, Kari’s Klimbers, for their 22nd Hustle Chicago® stair climb. Since 2008, his team has raised well over $400,000 to support Respiratory Health Association’s education, research, and policy change efforts.
But for Steve, climbing isn’t about breaking records. It’s about honoring the life-saving gift he received 25 years ago from Kari Westberg, a 17-year-old girl from Iowa.
Steve’s journey began with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that damages the lungs and digestive system. Growing up, doctors told him he wouldn’t live past his teens, “or so they thought,” Steve says with a laugh. Yet, as the years went by, his lungs grew weaker. By the 1990s, his lung capacity had plummeted to just 10%.
“Breathing felt impossible,” Steve recalls. “I was this close to the end when I got the call.” That call came in April 2000. Kari Westberg, a young girl whose life was tragically cut short, and her family, gave Steve the chance to live and breathe again with the gift of a double-lung transplant.
“People think you get a transplant, and you’re good to go. Not true. For lungs, half of us don’t make it five years,” Steve explains.
The double-lung transplant marked only the beginning of Steve’s medical journey. The medications he takes to protect his donated lungs and manage his cystic fibrosis have taken a toll on other organs, especially his kidneys and pancreas.
Twelve years after receiving Kari’s lungs, Steve’s kidneys failed. Alex, one of Kari’s friends and annually one of Steve’s teammates, gave him one of her kidneys to keep him and Kari in the stairwells a while longer. Over the decades, dozens of Kari’s friends and volleyball teammates have been on Steve’s teams.
“When you are immunosuppressed for transplant, or myriad other reasons, you open the door for cancer. You open the door for infectious disease,” Steve explains. Over the years, he has faced a host of complications: perforated organs, bowel obstructions, a kidney transplant, and most recently, a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
“Chemotherapy is rough, and the side effects of my treatments are cumulative, so it will likely get rougher,” Steve mentions. Despite the challenges he has faced, Steve emphasizes that his survival is a testament to the many people who have supported him. “I made it through a lot, but that would not have happened without so many people watching my back,” he says.
For Steve, the stair climb is about more than just climbing stairs. It’s a celebration of life, community, and the people who make a difference. “I take forever to go up because I love talking to the climbers, and I love letting them know that they make a difference. That people like me are alive because of people like them,” he explains.
Steve also draws inspiration from his mother, who used to stand in the doorway of a Jewel-Osco grocery store with a can, collecting change for cystic fibrosis research. “She’d shame people into it! And all these drugs that are coming out now were the result of decisions made back then. It’s the same thing in the stairwells,” he reflects. “All my life, I’ve watched improvements in respiratory care. And to witness that, to be a beneficiary of that, that’s an amazing thing. In a way, a high tide raises all ships. [Researchers] find something good for cystic fibrosis, it [also] benefits COPD and so many other respiratory ailments.”
Steve’s positivity, however, is not about looking at “rainbows and unicorns,” as he puts it. “It’s more of a choice to not be negative. Being negative ain’t going to help me. It’s just going to make me more depressed.”
This attitude has helped him through countless challenges, and he believes it’s a lesson for everyone.
“Be kind. Be good to people. Help someone else, whether that help is raising money for a cause, whether that help is participating in a cause, whether that help is helping out a neighbor, or a friend who needs something. That’s a big start, and once you do it, once you feel the goodness of doing that, you tend to keep doing it,” he emphasizes.
For over 28 years, the Hustle Chicago stair climb has offered the chance to make an impact. Whether you climb for hope, a loved one, or simply for the challenge, join the fight for healthy lungs and clean air.
Register at RespHealth.org/Hustle.
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