NEW BERLIN, Wis.— A New Berlin woman needs a life-saving transplant and her family is turning to the Wisconsin community for help.

Brittany Michaels is a fighter. She’s a 29-year-old woman from New Berlin who is battling cystic fibrosis.

“I actually was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when I was six weeks old. My childhood was actually pretty OK. I was pretty healthy for the most part until middle school; then I started going into the hospital,” Michaels says.

It wasn’t until two and a half years ago when her health severely declined, resulting in her first lung transplant. 

“I was actually on the transplant list for about two years and at that point, I was going in the hospital every other month. After the transplant I had a long recovery and was in the hospital for two months,” Michaels says.

However, last year she began to take another turn for the worse.

“Last year I started getting pretty sick with different things and I had rejection of my lungs. The beginning of this year is when it really started and it became rapid and it was just a downward spiral,” Michaels says.

She has been in the hospital in Wisconsin since May of this year. Within the past month, she was flown out to North Carolina to Duke to see if they could help her get to where she needs to be to get her second transplant.

“It’s been difficult. She is very strong, she is a fighter and she is not going to go down easy,” Brittany’s Mother, Kim Michaels says.

As you can imagine, hospital bills are through the roof, and with another transplant in her future, Brittany and her family are working to fundraise money to help save her life.

“A transplant can get up to a million dollars depending on everything that has been done. Right now she has been in the hospital since the start of may starting back in Wisconsin,” Kim Michales says.

They have opened up online funding through COTA. The Children’s Organ Transplant Organization is looking for the New Berlin and Wisconsin community to raise around $100,000 to go towards her transplant. Brittany says until the day comes when her body is ready to get its new lungs, she plans to fight even harder knowing her community is behind her.

For more information on how to donate, click here.

To follow along with Brittany’s journey and to find more local fundraising events in Wisconsin, click here.