Breathes of Hope

If you were given a second chance at life? How you redefine your full potential?At diagnosis at 8 months old, Jason van ’t Slot was given a life expectancy of just 10 years, and a limit to his ability to live a full life. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a life-shortening lung condition.Jason grew up knowing that his future came with limits. His life was shaped by regular hospital visits, IV antibiotic treatments, up to 40 pills a day of chronic medication and nebulizing. The constant uncertainty of what his lungs would allow him to do was a ticking clock that forced him to make the most of life. Jason measured his life not by the number of breathes he took but the number of moments that took his breath away. He pushed the boundaries as an athelete with cystic fibrosis. Jason achieved numerous world first and cystic fibrosis records such as a Cape Epic finish, cycled the height of Mount Everest (8848m), and completed multiple sub 3 Cape Town Cycles Tours. One unanswered question remained his entire life. What could he have achieved if he never had cf?Then, at 28 years old in 2023, everything changed.Jason gained access to Trikafta, a life-changing medication that transformed not only his health, but his perception of what his life could become.What followed was not simply a return to health. It was a pursuit of possibility.Through the lens of cycling, this documentary takes you inside Jason’s extraordinary journey as he discovers what his body, and his mind, might be capable of when the limitations he had lived with for so long begin to fall away when treated with the correct medication.From a prognosis measured in years, to chasing performance measured in watts and seconds, Jason sets his sights on something that once seemed almost unimaginable before Trikafta: representing his country in his agre group at the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in Japan.Filmed by Alec Gates of Active Hobo, the documentary captures an intimate and authentic journey of resilience, vulnerability, determination and the relentless desire to reach your potential, even when the odds have never been in your favour.This is not simply a story about cystic fibrosis.It is not simply a story about cycling.It is a story about being given a second chance, and deciding what to do with it.Come experience the journey.Because sometimes, between breath and belief,There is hope.