VINEMONT, Ala. (WHNT) – Make-Wish Alabama has nearly 300 children waiting on their wishes to come true. 13-year-old Marley Lamon is one of them.
She plays alto saxophone with the Vinemont High School band, despite still being in middle school. What is more impressive, however, is that she’s playing a wind instrument while battling Cystic Fibrosis.
“It affects all of the hollow organs. It causes the mucus in the body, because it doesn’t process the salt chloride correctly, that mucus gets thickened,” Marley’s mom Ginger said. “A main problem is that it clogs the lungs. Lung exacerbations are the main problem we deal with. “
Marley was diagnosed at just 11 days old.
“CF is what it is. When she was born, it was the number-one genetic fatal disease in children,” Ginger said.
Now, with the way medicine has advanced, a CF patient can live a long life with proper treatments.
“It’s just always been there. It’s been something I’ve thought about every day of my life,” Marley said.
It takes a plethora of medications and treatments each day to keep CF under control.
Marley and Ginger showed us a bag filled with medicines Marley is taking now. At one point, Ginger said Marley was taking 13 different medications.
She also does breathing treatments multiple times a day. Each 30-minute session has become a time Ginger and Marley cherish spending together. They watch movies and talk, but mostly they play The Long Dark.
It’s a survival video game that takes place in the freezing northern tundra.
It is also the inspiration behind Marley’s Make a Wish request: visit Alaska, to see the Aurora Borealis.
“[In the game] There’s always the northern lights at night and snow all around and I thought that’s really cool, I want to see that one day.”
Marley wants to bring her mom and her brother with her.
Her father passed in 2019. Then, the pandemic struck, making travel impossible for years.
“She definitely deserves the trip after everything she’s been through,” Ginger said.
The trek to the Northern Lights may be physically taxing, but Marley said she isn’t intimidated by CF’s discomforts.
Honestly, I try not to let it disrupt how I live my life. Sometimes I do things just to spite the people who say, ‘oh, you won’t be able to do this, your lungs don’t work! That’s why I joined band and played a wind instrument,” she said.
Ginger said the mindset as a parent is to let Marley go for any challenge she sets her mind to, as long as it’s cleared by doctors.
“She’s just amazing what she’s been able to grow into and accomplish,” Ginger said.
Nothing will stop her from doing what she loves.
“I like to prove people wrong. It’s a good thing to do sometimes,” Marley said.
