JASPER: My name is Jasper and I have Cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is an invisible disease, it affects lungs and other parts of my body.
The big thing it’s the mucus or “frogs” that I have to get rid of.
So mucus it’s sort of a sticky stuff and it get stuck in my lungs and makes me sometimes wheeze or makes me cough.
Then I cough it out into a tissue and my mum and dad, they have to look and see what colour it is, cause if it’s like green it’s bad but if it’s pale then it’s fine.
I have to wake up half an hour earlier than everyone else (alarm beeping). Firstly I get up and I do my nebuliser which puffs out steam and it’s a box like this big.
You have a mouthpiece and a wire attaches and you breathe it in and it tickles the 'frogs' and it makes me cough and cough them out.
Then I have to just go to school and we do my acapella in the car. It’s like a thermometer type of thing and you blow into it, so it’s like, when you’re in the car it tells you how fast you’re going so you’re going 20 miles an hour. So it goes like five, ten, fifteen, twenty.
I have to have tablets and everyone stares at me.
All the little ones in school going: “What’s that?” and I’m like “Err, they’re tablets”.
No one else in the school is allowed to have chocolate, because my body doesn’t take the fat in as much as it should do, like everyone else’s does, so I have to eat way more fatty food than everyone else.
I always hear at school like, erm, people asking: “Oh Jasper, do you want to come for a sleepover tonight?” and I go: “No, I can’t.” and they go: “Why?” and I go: “Because I have to do all the medication. It’s too much of a hassle for your parents."
And if you’re in hospital and you’re not very well, you have this line. It’s like a pipe, up your arm and it pumps the medicine into you and when you’ve done it for a week, you’re allowed to go home but then you have to come back every night.
It’s really boring, but the nurses are really nice and they take care of you.
I try and stay fit and then if I do lots of exercise, it makes me more like, energetic and it’s really good for me with CF.
Even bouncing on the trampoline is good, because it moves the mucus around and makes it easier to talk, easy to come out.
I don’t get as much time like, playing with my brother and stuff. Cause if we play Lego and play together on the trampoline, play football together in the garden, occasionally lay on my bed and watch TV… and I can’t do it because I’m doing my nebuliser.
When you have 'frogs' and you… Cough them out and that’s the end of your frogs and I have never ending.
I have to carry on coughing as many as I can. It’s basically a big cold and this cold would not go away.
It stays for the rest of my life, I’ll have it forever.
Video summary
A powerful and eye-opening animated documentary that uses the first-person testimony of Jasper, a boy who lives with cystic fibrosis.
Jasper explains what his condition is, the treatment he receives and the emotional challenges he faces. He talks about school, school trips, friends, his hobbies and explains the complications that cystic fibrosis brings to these situations.
This animation will be particularly useful for teachers when covering topics such as understanding and respecting differences and similarities.
This clip is from the series: I Can't Go To School Today.
Teacher Notes
You could ask your pupils if they know what cystic fibrosis is and how it can affect someone that suffers from it. Get them to think about how they could make life easier for those in different situations to their own.
You could also ask your pupils to suggest how they would make Jasper feel comfortable and normal. Discuss these suggestions as a class and ask how they could apply them to other situations as well.
This short film will be relevant for teaching KS2, KS3 and KS4 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and at 2nd, 3rd and 4th Level in Scotland.
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