He breathed life into many projects on Whidbey Island. Now a father needs help to breathe himself.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, a longtime Whidbey Island resident, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in October 2010. The lung disease is incurable and Fitzpatrick needs a lung transplant.

Fitzpatrick’s 20-year-old daughter, Kelsie Fitzpatrick, has been helping family and friends mobilize to raise the necessary funds to keep her father alive.

With the help of her 4-H horse club family, Kelsie has organized the “Ryan Fitzpatrick Benefit Horse Show and Silent Auction” at the Island County Fairgrounds horse arena at 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 16. The all-ages event costs $25 and everyone is welcome to join in the various games that will be both on horseback and off. Door prizes, food and fun will also be part of the day.

Kelsie said that her father has had trouble breathing ever since a devastating motorcycle accident in 1988 sent him and his stepson to the hospital with spinal injuries. Unlike his stepson who was not injured as badly, Ryan spent six months recuperating from a broken spine.

“My dad miraculously pulled through with rods down his back, atrophied muscles and an unstoppable will to live,” Kelsie said.

“That same incredible will to live is still present as he continues to persevere through this illness. There is only one thing stopping him, and that is medical bills in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

After being informed that his lungs were deteriorating at a rapid pace, he was told by his doctor that a lung transplant is his only hope.

For most of 2010, he struggled with the burden of trying to stay employed in the dismal economy and dealing with multiple hospital trips to the mainland and Coupeville. During this time his wife, Ritchie, and Kelsie, supplemented the household income with various jobs.

“The doctors could never pin down his breathing complications,” Kelsie said of her father, who never smoked a day in his life.

“He told me it feels like he is always walking on a treadmill while breathing through a straw.”

The medical terms associated with his illness are restrictive lung disease, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, interstitial lung disease, chronic respiratory failure, hypoxemia and obesity. Fitzpatrick was going to the hospital to a respiratory exercise class, but at $300 per class he could not afford to continue.

Kelsie said her dad needs to lose about 50 pounds to be eligible for the transplant and she and her mom are working hard to help him do that. Without a transplant, no one knows how long his lungs will hold out, but the doctors say he will not survive.

“He can walk, but can’t do much more,” Kelsie said.

“But we’ve been spending a lot of time together; we go fishing together and that has been good.”

Kelsie, who works in the equine, tack and feed department of Skagit Farmers Supply in Freeland, has had to step up and help the family pay its bills.

“I kind of had to just grow up fast. My mom got her hours cut (she works for the South Whidbey School District) and my dad has been on and off of unemployment,” Kelsie said.

An avid horsewoman, Kelsie graduated from 4-H after nine years and now brings in a little extra cash for the family by boarding a friend’s horse. She’s been riding since she was three, having been introduced to the sport by her mom, who was a champion barrel racer as a child in Oregon.

“I’ve always had horses in my life and it’s something I just can’t live without,” she said.

She just can’t live without her dad either, and Kelsie is doing everything she can to help her father and her family.

“He has always supported me since I was young, coaching my soccer and basketball teams, helping in 4-H through all my riding years, even up to the last couple years volunteering his time raking the ground with the tractor to keep it safe for the barrel races that happen in Langley,” she said.

Kelsie said that throughout his life, her father has been a friend, not just to her, but to many people and did his best to help out wherever he was needed. As a carpenter most of his life, he worked hard to support his family. Now he is in dire need of help from others, she said.

She urged the community to come out and have fun on behalf of her dad and promised plenty of excitement with a 50/50 raffle, a chance to rope a dummy cow and fun, noncompetitive horse games for anybody who has a helmet.

“Come for the fun even if you are not a gamer,” Kelsie said.

A silent auction will also be held during the fundraiser.

Donations to the Ryan Fitzpatrick fund can be made at the Whidbey Island Bank branch in Freeland or mailed to Marilyn Gabelein, 2877 Cedar Spring Lane, Clinton, WA 98236.