FLINT (WWJ) – A Flint man dying from cystic fibrosis is holding out hope he will live to see his 21st birthday next week, and his mother is making sure he gets a couple of last wishes granted.

Michele Everett said her son Chad was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a disease that causes chronic and fatal lung infections, when he was just a baby. Chad had gone 10 years hospital free, but got sick in high school and never fully recovered.

At 20-years-old, Chad can’t breathe without being hooked up to oxygen and walking even a short distance exhausts him. In November, Everett said doctors gave Chad only two months to live.

“He’s at the final stages of the disease. The doctors gave him two months and he was like ‘No, I’m turning 21 on January 22 and I’m at least hanging in there until then,'” Everett told WWJ’s Laura Bonnell.

Everett said she’s trying to make as many of Chad’s last wishes come true, including seeing a Detroit Red Wings game and meeting some of the players. But there’s one thing she knows will put a smile on Chad’s face: birthday cards.

“The first day, we got like 13 cards in the mail from people we didn’t even know, the second day we got like 54 cards, yesterday we got about 39 cards. It’s just from all over, different states, and they’re all writing personal notes on there, like ‘Oh, I have a son with cystic fibrosis’ or ‘Hang in there and keep fighting.’ It’s just awesome. Some of them are even drawing pictures and it’s just overwhelming, the kindness that people are showing,” she said.

Everett is hoping people from across the nation will hear Chad’s story and send him a birthday greeting.

Everyone is encouraged to mail Chad a birthday card at:

9165 Chatwell Club Drive, Apartment #14,

Davison, Michigan 48423