Training to Breathe: Paul Butler’s Fight Against Cystic Fibrosis

Today’s episode dives into lived experience with cystic fibrosis through the remarkable journey of Paul  Butler. Diagnosed at two and warned he wouldn’t reach twenty. Paul’s childhood revolved around twice-daily chest physiotherapy, three-daily nebulisers, and a mass of hospital admissions for infections that chipped away at his fragile lungs.

By his late teens, the odds felt fixed: average life expectancy for CF hovered around 30, and Paul’s lung capacity was already tumbling. Yet everything changed the day he cradled his newborn daughter, Amelia. Faced with a future he refused to miss, Paul overhauled his life, embracing rigorous medication adherence, evidence-informed nutrition, and a training regimen that turned a patient into a personal trainer who now deadlifts triple his body weight.

At 45, Paul hasn’t been hospitalised in seven years and views fitness not as vanity but as respiratory medicine performed in a gym. In this conversation, we ask:

• What mindset shifts sustain adherence when statistics feel fatalistic?
• And what can pre-hospital professionals learn about goal-setting, communication, and empathy from someone who quite literally trains to breathe?

You can find Paul Butler on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/paulbutler.coach/?hl=en

You can find Paul's website here: https://paulspeakphysique.co.uk/given-just-weeks-to-live

You can find the inspiration for this interview on the Grind Diaries Podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/episode-16-paul-butler-the-personal-trainer-living/id1736072345?i=1000682838118

This episode is brought to you by IndieBase.

IndieBase is the smart, simple, and budget-friendly Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system designed specifically for the demands of HEMS and pre-hospital care. Whether you're responding solo, working within a flexible team, or managing care across a larger organisation, IndieBase is built to support you. It runs seamlessly on laptops, tablets, or smartphones, and crucially, it operates offline, ensuring you can document care wherever you are, even in the most remote environments. Developed from the proven platform of HEMSbase by Medic One Systems, IndieBase offers a familiar, intuitive interface with the rock-solid reliability clinicians need. It's ready for everything from festival medical cover to high-acuity critical care transfers.

Key features include full integration with all major pre-hospital monitors, case review, and clinical governance modules, making it an ideal solution for teams preparing for CQC registration. A patient feedback module also helps drive service improvement and meaningful engagement. For clinicians working across multiple organisations, IndieBase provides a personal logbook that combines your data and links directly with your existing HEMSbase logbook.

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