AUBURN (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- This late-summer heat is uncomfortable for many of us and for some, it's more. It's a health risk. Even for those who try to stay as physically active as possible, like Greg Lambert. Thanks to a new medical trial he's breathing a bit easier for the first time in a decade.
Lambert has Cystic Fibrosis. As a young child, his life expectancy was 10-years-old. He's now 36 and married to his high school sweet heart. Together they have two children, twins.
For the most part Lambert was able to maintain an active life, even living with the genetic disease.
"I love swimming I love hiking I love camping," he said. "And I haven't been able to do that for ten years."
That was until his mid twenties, when he suffered an allergic reaction.
"My lung function dropped way down and that's when they said, 'OK we think you need to be listed on the transplant list.'"
Coughing, trouble sleeping and breathing. His quality of life deteriorated but he remained dedicated to staying as physically fit as possible.
"For years they told me I was too healthy to be actively listed." he said.
Eventually the exercise wasn't enough. He needed a double lung transplant. In January he went to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Three separate times though, illness or other concerns got in the way.
"It crushed me," said Lambert. "Emotionally I was just done."
This month, and the 4th trip down, he received the long-awaited double transplant. He doesn't know who the lungs came from, but he knows they were the lungs of a drug user diagnosed with Hepatitis C; part of a trial underway at the hospital.
Walking the halls of the hospital, his motivation to get moving again inspired everyone around him so much so, they gave him a superhero cape. After just ten days in the hospital, he returned to his Auburn home Monday.
And although he now begins a strict regimen of taking more than 60 pills a day, he's thankful that even in this heat, he can breathe again.
"World of difference," said Lambert. "I was able to walk a mile this morning outside."
He's also thankful to those who choose to donate organs, who can save lives after death.
"Before the transplant there was a chance I wouldn't be able to see my daughter get married, or my kids graduate," he said. "Being a donor is more than giving life it's making a family whole again."
His goal, one year from now, is to hike Tumbledown Mountain in Franklin County.
There is an expensive cost associated with his road to recovery. Between traveling twice a week to see doctors in Boston and the cost of all those medications. There is a GoFundMe page where you can help. Click here. And to learn more about registering to become an organ donor, click here.