A few years ago, doctors put a stopwatch on William O’Neal II’s life. Three months, like his own little doomsday clock.
Now, he’s a poet at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Grace Lidgett used to gasp for breath after even attempting to jog one loop around her elementary school’s track during field day.
Now, she’s a triple qualifier in the Iowa state high school cross-country and track competitions — and a long-distance runner for fun.
Both had cystic fibrosis, a once-deadly disease and medical mystery, and both experienced these drastic life-changes due in part to the quiet, iterative, decades-long work of one Iowa physician-scientist: Dr. Michael Welsh.
Welsh’s meticulous research and undeniable benevolence led to a remarkable breakthrough that transformed a lethal diagnosis into a manageable condition for patients like Lidgett and O’Neal II, among many thousands of others.
Join us on April 29 to watch “Giving Back Breath,” a 20-minute documentary that connects these three stories, on the big screen and then hear more about life before and after this revolutionary discovery during a post-movie Q&A featuring Dr. Welsh, O’Neal II, Lidgett and filmmakers Courtney Crowder and Chad Cohen.
Tickets to the event are free, and first-come, first-served.
Click here or visit VarsityDesMoines.com to reserve your seat or learn more about the event.
Academy Award-nominated HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, the Des Moines Register and USA Today Studios produced the film. HHMI Tangled Bank Studios is sponsoring the premiere event.
Join us!
“Giving Back Breath” premiere event 7p.m., Wednesday, April 29, at The Varsity Cinema 1207 25th St., Des Moines, Iowa
Our panelists
Dr. Michael J. Welsh
Dr. Mike Welsh obtained a doctor of medicine and completed internal medicine residency at the University of Iowa. He trained in pulmonary medicine and research at University of California, San Francisco, and University of Texas, Houston. He then joined the University of Iowa where he is a professor of internal medicine, neurology, and molecular physiology and biophysics. He directs the Cystic Fibrosis Research Center and Pappajohn Biomedical Institute. He was a HHMI Investigator from 1989-2024.
Welsh served as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences.
He received the Distinguished Mentor Award from the Carver College of Medicine. He has also received the Gordon Wilson Medal, Walter B Cannon Award, Steven C Beering Prize, Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, Wiley Prize, Switzer Prize, Yergin-New International Prize, Canada Gairdner International Award and Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
William O’Neal II
William O’Neal II is a writer from the American South. Their work has been published by The Journal, The WB Yeats Society of NY, HouseHouse Magazine, & ONLY POEMS, among others.
They have received support from The Stanley Award for International Research and is a poetry research fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Grace Lidgett
Grace Lidgett grew up in Traer, Iowa, and is a college student at Grace College in Indiana, majoring in graphic design and marketing. When she’s not studying or serving coffee, she’s skipping across states to hike mountains and meet new people. Even when she’s not clocked in, she can’t get away from coffee, so she’s typically sharing a cup or two with strangers at the top of her favorite overlooks.
Chad Cohen
Chad Cohen heads development and production at HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, where he’s responsible for creating bold, story-driven science content. A writer, director, showrunner and executive producer with more than two decades of experience turning complex science into compelling, character-rich stories, he works closely with both internal and external creative teams to produce genre-defining work that supports the studio’s mission to spark curiosity, inspire trust and deepen engagement in science.
Before joining HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Chad was an executive producer at National Geographic. Over the years, he has created acclaimed science and history programming for National Geographic, PBS, NOVA, Smithsonian and Discovery, tackling subjects ranging from evolution and archaeology to bioluminescence and the hidden world of microbes.
Courtney Crowder
Courtney Crowder is the Iowa Columnist and a senior writer at the Des Moines Register and USA Today. A Headliner Award winner, two-time Livingston Award finalist and DART Award finalist, Crowder’s work is distinctive for telling human stories with an investigative eye and a narrative touch.
She wrote and co-directed the award-winning “SHIFT: The RAGBRAI Documentary” and hosted a produced an episode of “Proof,” one of Apple’s most popular food podcasts, on America’s first butter sculptor. During the pandemic, Crowder led the Register’s efforts to document the names and stories of Iowans who died of COVID through the “Iowa Mourns” project and penned a 7-part series, “Inside COVID’s Siege,” after spending weeks embedded in an Ames ICU fighting a deadly surge in patients. She is also a co-founder and former director of the Des Moines Storytellers Project. Find her work and more at DesMoinesRegister.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Join us for ‘Giving Back Breath’ premiere, CF panel discussion
Reporting by Courtney Crowder, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
