A New Set of Lungs

Some great news. Coach Trent Todd received a pair of lungs last week and thus far his body is accepting them pretty well.

This is extremely encouraging because Trent's health was going downhill pretty fast. You can follow his progress at the blog they set up for him at http://trenttodd.blogspot.com/

You can check out some of Trent's video messages on our You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SportsLeaderUSA

Knowing someone who has a life-threatening illness can put things in perspective pretty quick.

As many of you are preparing for this next season, ask yourself:

What is truly what you want the most this season?
Can you narrow it down to that ONE, SINGULAR most important thing?

What do you want second?

What do you want third?
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If you are new to the blog ... Coach Trent Todd is a member of our coaches association and the kind of man that you definitely want coaching your son.

Trent was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

In short, Trent needed a double lung transplant. His doctors gave him five years to live. That was a few years ago. At first, things did not seem so "bad". I confess I didn't even notice much of a change. He continued to work, continued to coach ...

But now things have taken a different turn and he needs an oxygen machine to help him breathe. Please pray for Trent, his wife Jill and his two young children Sophia and Bryce.

And yet, Trent wants to continue building SportsLeader. He recorded some short video messages to encourage others about what life, coaching and mentoring are truly about. My family and I had the opportunity to visit with Trent and his family and it was such a blessing. Being with a man who only thinks of others, who you know cares about everyone ... it is an inspiring experience and I could see that all of my children learned a great deal from him.
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Pulmonary fibrosis is a disease marked by scarring in the lungs. Tissue deep in the lungs becomes thick, stiff and scarred. The scarring is called fibrosis. As the lung tissue becomes scarred, it interferes with a person's ability to breathe.

In some cases, the cause of pulmonary fibrosis can be found. But most cases of pulmonary fibrosis have no known cause. These cases are called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Pulmonary fibrosis can develop slowly or quickly. There is no cure. Many people with the disease live only about three to five years after diagnosis.