Nik Stauskas leads the charge to kiss Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) goodbye

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It’s still the offseason in the NBA, and Nik Stauskas remains busy trying to raise money and awareness for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The Mississauga basketball star has joined forces with the Canadian Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation and Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. in an effort to raise awareness of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a progressive and fatal lung disease his grandma Irene Meiklejohn was diagnosed with five and a half years ago. „I’m trying to spread awareness to other people because other than the families who have been affected by IPF, I feel like a lot of people aren’t aware of the disease or what the symptoms are,” Stauskas told mississauganews.com.

Meiklejohn, 82, was originally given a prognosis of three years and is now in a longterm home in Toronto after suffering a stroke last March. She lost her ability to speak from the stroke, according to Stauskas. Even before the stroke occurred, he saw signs that IPF was affecting her daily life in a big way.

With September being IPF awareness month, Stauskas is a spokesperson for the Kiss IPF Goodbye campaign. Through that avenue, he’s encouraging Canadians to visit KissIPFgoodbye.com, use the online „Giffing Booth” to create and share their own kissing GIF, using their hand and lips to kiss IPF goodbye. From there, GIFs can be shared on Facebook, Twitter or Instragram, using the hashtag #KissIPFGoodbye and for each time the hashtag is used, Boehringer Ingelheim will donate $1 to fund IPF research.

Stauskas is ready to embark on a new chapter in his career as he gets ready for his sophomore season in the NBA. In July, he was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the Philadelphia 76ers, a team he’s looking forward to joining because of its wealth of young prospects.