North Raleigh Today

Joey O'Connell, a University of North Carolina graduate who died in 2009 of complications from cystic fibrosis, was recently honored with a bocce-ball fundraiser at Cardinal Gibbons High School, ABC11 reported.

Cystic fibrosis affects 30,000 people in the U.S. and 70,000 people worldwide, according to ABC11.

O'Connell's friends and family members hold a fundraiser every year to raise money for research to fight the disease.

"We will do this until there is a cure for cystic fibrosis, or at least medicines that are going to take care of these kids forever," Elana O'Connell, Joey's mother, told ABC11.

So far, the fundraisers have generated $500,000 for cystic fibrosis research.

The disease is most common in people with northern European heritage. It damages the respiratory and digestive tracts, particularly the lungs, ABC11 said. Approximately one in 20 people in the U.S. carries the gene for cystic fibrosis but never gets the disease.

Lung transplants are now an option for some patients with severe cystic fibrosis, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation website.

"The median survival for adults with CF who had lung transplants between 1999 and 2016 is 9.5 years," the website said. "That means that half of the people with CF who have had lung transplants were alive 9.5 years after transplant."