RIDGEFIELD, Conn., June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New York Yankees all-time great and Latin Grammy-nominee Bernie Williams is raising awareness of the disease that took his dad's life - idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), through the launch of the Breathless Ballad Challenge.
Growing up, Bernie would fall asleep to the sound of his father strumming his guitar until he worked up the courage to ask him for a lesson. After that, music became a passion they shared that brought them closer together.
After years of suffering from the rare and serious lung disease IPF, Bernabé Williams passed away in 2001. It was a devastating reality. Bernie's dad was his hero - on the stage, on the field and in life.
Bernie wrote the instrumental song, "Para Don Berna" to honor his father's memory and is asking everyone to join him in developing the song further by submitting lyrics to his musical tribute.
Use the form on www.BreathlessBallad.com to submit original lyrics to accompany Bernie Williams' instrumental song, "Para Don Berna." The lyrics must be inspired by a hero in your life or someone for whom you are grateful. Following your written lyric submission, you will receive an email confirmation outlining the opportunity to submit a video of you or someone you know singing your lyrics with Bernie's track. All submissions will be judged based on the lyrics, not the video performance.
This initiative is part of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Breathless campaign, a national effort to educate and empower others who think they may have IPF - the most common form of interstitial lung disease (ILD) that causes permanent scarring of the lungs - to seek early diagnosis and treatment and offer hope to patients and families affected by this disease. ILDs encompass more than 200 disorders and can lead to pulmonary fibrosis - an irreversible scarring of lung tissue that negatively impacts lung function. Chronic fibrosing ILDs in which lung fibrosis continues to worsen are estimated to occur in 18 to 32 percent of patients with ILDs.
