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Virginia Raney will be a reluctant viewer of Alex, The Life of a Child on ABC Television next week. The movie is the story of a brave little girl who struggled with cystic fibrosis, the same disease that Mrs. Raney’s son, Greg Swain, is battling.
“Alex was an incredible child who never gave up and never really quit fighting. She was a feisty, funny little girl with an enormous love of and zest for life. Alex virtually transcended her debilitating disease and was an inspiration to everyone around her,” says the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s publicity for the movie. “When she died, her family was devastated, but her courage, spirit and hope were captured by her writer-father, Frank Deford, in the book, Alex.The Life of a Child."
“I’ve seen excerpts from the movie and I’m not sure I can take it all at one time,” Mrs. Raney said. “I’ll have to tape it and watch it in segments, I’m afraid.”
This spring, the Foundation’s fundraising drive will be conducted in honor of Alex Deford. Mrs. Raney, chairman of the effort in Rappahannock County, hopes that the airing of the movie will provide a heightened awareness of the tragedy of cystic fibrosis at a time when contributions may be critically important.
“At the fund drive’s organizational conference in Richmond, we were told that researchers are so close to finding the gene that triggers cystic fibrosis. They’re all racing to the Nobel Prize,” Mrs. Raney said. She pointed to the discovery last year of the first genetic marker for this devastating hereditary disease. Researchers believe the dis
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