Conner’s Cause: Going the extra mile for cystic fibrosis

Saturday, May 3, Conner’s Causes 5k run or 1-mile walk celebrates its 8th anniversary raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s research for a cure. Participants can register for $10 at 8:15 a.m. on the Socorro Plaza for the 9a.m. race. The male and female winners will win the grand prize of 1lb of bacon each, an award decided by the event’s creator Conner Johnston whose favorite food is the savory breakfast side. Every participant also receives a collectors item T-shirt that is designed every year by Conner and his father Perry Johnston.

“It’s important to Conner that cystic fibrosis research continues to search for a cure,” said his mother Jeanne Johnston. “The shirts are really cool. Conner and his dad incorporated landmarks of Socorro this year because without the community we wouldn’t be able to do a fundraiser like this.”

At 15, Conner Johnston knows something about perseverance. He was born with a rare form of cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition in which a baby inherits certain genes from both parents that present in the child with particular mutations. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation estimates there are about 40,000 children and adults living with CF in the US. However, the particular form of CF that Conner, who was diagnosed when he was 10 months old, inherited affects less than 20% of the people in the world, and there is not a genetic modifier medication to treat his particular condition, his mother Jeanne Johnston said.

CF can affect the lungs, and Conner has been admitted multiple times to address breathing issues, but even so, Conner participates in various sports, as well as his signature event that he wanted to create after participating in a Striders and Riders Big Toys 5k when he was 7 years old. As many as 200 runners and walkers have participated in Conner’s Causes in the past.

Participants can register in person or online at https://runsignup.com/Race/NM/Socorro/ConnorsCauses5k