“Imagine the doctors telling you that, at your current rate of progression, you have less than a year to live.”

These words were written by Todd Gibbs at the age of 30 as he began his wait for a lung transplant. The transplant never occurred, and five days after his 31st birthday, on Oct. 13, 1995, Todd died. Cystic fibrosis, the disease he had battled all his life, had finally ended it.

Todd had hoped to write a book while he recovered from his lung transplant. Instead, 15 years later, his mother, LaRecea Gibbs, has fulfilled her son’s dream by writing “Not a Wasted Breath: Living Fearlessly with Cystic Fibrosis.”

“It is not a book about dying, it is a book about living,” said LaRecea Gibbs, who was born and raised in Allen County and lives in Scottsville.

Writing a book about the life and death of a son is terribly difficult, she said, but in the end it was something she believed God wanted her to do.

Todd was diagnosed with CF, a genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system, when he was 5 years old. CF patients have a defective gene that causes the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that can cause life-threatening lung infections. Todd’s parents were told that he would not live past the age of 12.

“He knew he was going to die,” LaRecea Gibbs said. “But he said, ‘If I think about dying, then I won’t live.’ ”

With that attitude, Todd set out to do all he could. He played baseball, went to school, played in the Allen County-Scottsville High School marching band, served on the student council and enjoyed hanging out with friends. In the midst of all that, he was hospitalized on a regular basis, sometimes missing weeks of school at a time. He was also named National Cystic Fibrosis Representative in 1980 and traveled to the White House to meet President Jimmy Carter.

In the book, Gibbs talks about the challenges of parenting a terminally ill child and how it affects the whole family. Todd has two younger sisters, Angela Martin and Hope Turner Cummiskey.

After graduating from high school, Todd continued his quest to pack as much life as possible into every day. He bought a house and worked at WVLE radio in Scottsville and earned the nickname “Scoop.” He was a referee for high school basketball games, running up and down the court even though he had only 30 percent lung capacity, and he served as director of the Lady Invitational of the South, a well-known girls’ high school basketball tournament. Todd also graduated from Western Kentucky University and served on the Scottsville City Council.

“He had such determination,” Gibbs said. “He knew life was short and he wasn’t going to waste one minute of it.”

In the book, LaRecea Gibbs tells how Todd would lighten serious times with humor. She recalls a time when she was spending the night in the hospital with him and he asked if she would speak at his funeral. As he told he how he wanted her to thank everyone for being there for him, LaRecea Gibbs was close to tears. Sensing her sadness, Todd finally said, “Mom, you’ll know what to say. I’m not worried about that. I’m just worried you won’t know when to shut up.”

LaRecea Gibbs knew that Todd was keeping a journal, but she didn’t get a chance to see it until a while after his death.

“When I first read it, I felt like he was in the room with me,” she recalled with tears in her eyes.

Although she avoided writing the book for several years, LaRecea Gibbs said she finally ran out of excuses. The book was released in October and she has been amazed at the response. It has been selling well and people from around the world have read it. A Facebook page created for the book has many views and a number of people has commented on it.

Published by Tate Publishing, the book can be purchased on the publisher’s website, as well as at local stores, including Barnes & Noble Booksellers, where LaRecea Gibbs will have a book signing March 12.

LaRecea Gibbs said she hopes the book will raise awareness about CF and will encourage people to be organ donors. She also hopes the book helps people see that God can help them through whatever they are going through.

“He doesn’t take away the obstacle,” LaRecea Gibbs said. “But he can help us go through them and over them and around them, and since Todd has died, I’ve realized he can help us endure them.”