8-year-old Beate is standing next to the lectern in the big auditorium at the hospital wearing only her underpants. The attending medical students sit and look at her frail body, while the professor points with a stick at her protruding chest. Body part by body part he explains about the classic signs of CF and concludes with Beate's 'drumstick fingers'. She quietly clenches the hand he does not touch with a pointer, into a fist.TODAY BEATE WALLENTIN is 49 years old. She was born with cystic fibrosis. Neither doctors nor her relatives expected her to live this long, to enjoy the good life, to take an education and eventually get a job at SAS as a stewardess. Beate has constantly fought against being seen as an appendage to her weak lungs " she is not an accessory to her illness " but a whole person " and she has found her own way to defy the daily challenges.A life with a chronic disease has many mental challenges. This book gives you the tools to create a dynamic of balance in your family or your relationships, despite ill- ness. The tools may provide you with a fresh view of addiction, guilt, loneliness, the victim role, and what it means to find the courage to love another human being.