DES MOINES, Iowa — For most juniors in high school, dreams include getting your driver’s license, being named to the varsity athletic team, and making lasting memories.
But for Ashley Vazquez-Hernandez, she likes to keep it simple.
“I just like to have fun and make new friends,” Vazquez-Hernandez told Local 5.
She’s made many of them after she joined the high school swimming team at East High School in Des Moines this year
“Coach Erin’s sister called, and they told me that if I was interested and I was like so excited and I agreed. Plus, it’s good for me and my lungs to really be working,” Vazquez-Hernandez said.
“The first week of August when they have to turn in all their paperwork, she turned in like a 12-page packet of you know, this is the health concerns, and normally it's like one or two sentences on the back of the card that says a medication or something easy,” said East High swimming coach Erin Lowe.
For most of her life, Ashley lived with a disease called cystic fibrosis. Doctors told her she wouldn’t live past nine years of age, and with no cure for the disease, their family explored all the options.
“I believe it was in 2017, when I had to go to St. Louis, because that was the last option that we had. So, I could keep on with my life,” said Vazquez-Hernandez.
After being in and out of the hospital in St. Louis, waiting for the right match, she finally underwent a double lung transplant in 2018.
“Actually, never dreamed of being under water,” Vazquez-Hernandez recalled.
And from there she hasn’t slowed down.
“I try to go as fast as I can."
Her coach says she’s out to prove something.
“It’s like this internal thing, she is just going to prove to the world that she can do it,” Lowe said.
Breath after breath, Ashley continues to show cystic fibrosis won’t write her story.
“She’s just such an inspiration to the whole team, it just makes everybody think, if Ashley can do it then I can do it,” Lowe added.
"The only thing that I think of is having fun, that’s all I think of,” said Vazquez-Hernandez.
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