By Mikayla van Loon
When the ground beneath Matt Ryan’s feet crumbled after the death of his young love Claudia Coll in 2019 from her lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis (CF), he turned to channelling his grief into keeping her memory alive.
The 22-year-old from Lilydale has spent the last 40 odd days, with more to go, cycling across New Zealand’s north and south islands to raise money for Cure4CF.
Aiming to travel 3000km and raise $50,000 for research into a vaccine to prevent the bacterial infection that ultimately cost Claudia her life at just 18-years-old, Matt said “I just wanted to do anything I could to raise money for Claud.”
“I wanted to share Claudia’s story and do it in a way to help others like her. That’s what she would want, and what she would want, is what I want,” he said.
Taking on the challenge as a way to spread the word about Claudia and CF as far and wide as possible, Matt said Claudia’s vibrant and loving nature would do the rest to capture people’s attention.
“It’s easy to get people to fall in love with Claud, all I’ve got to do is share her story, and try to get people to take lessons away from her life and CF,” he said.
“After you lose someone, it hurts your soul when people stop talking about them. I don’t want anyone to ever stop talking about her and CF awareness.”
Deeply moved by Matt’s tribute to Claudia and the money he had been able to raise for CF, Claudia’s name will forever be remembered through research called ‘The Claudia Project’.
“In 2020, Matt came to us utterly broken following the loss of his partner Claudia,” Cure4CF CEO Suzy Dimaline said.
“He really wanted to turn his grief into a purpose not only in memory of Claudia, but also to do everything in his power to ensure Claudia’s brother, Jordan, who also has cystic fibrosis, didn’t suffer the same fate as his sister.”
CF is one of the most common inherited diseases affecting the developed world, with one in every 2,500 children diagnosed.
The multi-organ disease attacks the lungs, gut, liver, pancreas and reproductive tissues, making people more susceptible to a range of infections including the harmful Burkholderia bacteria which is often found in soil and water.
The bacteria poses a serious concern due to the poor long-term prognosis, patient-to-patient transmission and its resistance to antibiotics.
Heading the research under The Claudia Project is University of Melbourne’s Dr Nick Scott, a researcher and laboratory head at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, who is using the bacteria’s own tricks against it to help develop a new way to produce vaccines.
“Infections caused by Burkholderia are associated with high mortality rates, cystic fibrosis patients are often excluded from lifesaving tissue transplants due to the risk associated with post-transplant infections,” he said.
“Through funding of our research, our team will establish new methods to create proteins known as glycoproteins using cutting edge glycoengineering approaches and test the production of novel glycoprotein vaccines against the Burkholderia bacteria.”
For Matt, knowing his fundraiser and The Claudia Project has the potential to save lives in the future, he “can’t begin to describe what that means to me.”
Cycling for Claudia has allowed Matt to hold onto his memories and connection to Claudia, posting one day on his gruelling ride “[I] really miss my soulmate so much. I feel so close to her right now.”
“Claudia was just special, she was so much fun. She loved me and everyone in her life so much.
“She was just infectious, she had a way of connecting with everyone that you just can’t explain. She was and is my whole world, we were both put on this planet for each other.”
Each and every day was a battle for Claudia and Matt said “breathing was a challenge for her but she battled with a smile on her face”.
While Matt said Claudia gave her all to others to make them happy, it was often hard to see how much she was struggling, with every part of her body turning against her.
“What isn’t talked about, is just how time consuming and mentally draining [CF] is. Spending hours and hours every single day just to stay alive, it takes you away from pretty much anything you want to do,” he said.
Having so far raised over $38,000 for Cure4CF and the research project, Claudia’s parents Peter and Kate said they couldn’t be prouder of Matt.
“I cannot describe the heartache of losing Claudia – the grief is with us every day and is made so much more challenging because Jordan also suffers from cystic fibrosis,” Peter said.
“Matthew’s determination to support cystic fibrosis research so Jordan and others like him may have brighter futures is such an inspiring and selfless way to honour Claudia.”
Follow and support Matt’s journey on Facebook and Instagram by visiting @cyclingforclaudia or to donate, visit www.cycling-for-claudia-cycling-for-a-cure.raisely.com/
For more information on Cure 4 Cystic Fibrosis, visit www.cure4cf.org
