The Rebekah Goldstein Giannakos Memorial Research Grant

August 20, 1972 – March 23, 2026

I started Running On Air because an oxygen company made my sister cry.  It feels fitting, then, to create a research grant in her memory that will fund research to find a cure for PCD, and treat pseudomonas and NTM infections.

When Rebekah was told she had antibiotic resistant pseudomonas, and I was pushing for phage therapy to be tried on a compassionate basis, she looked at me and said, “So are you going to start a phage therapy center now?”  She knew I would do whatever I could to help her.  

We are still working out the details of this grant, the committee that will oversee it, and the specifics of the grant filing process.  All donations made through the link below will be designated specifically for this grant.

Thank you for your kindness. Your financial support is vital in our efforts to ensure that others don’t have to face the same hardships she did.

– Mary Kitlowski

About Rebekah’s Illness

While Rebekah was more than her rare diseases, it was the rare diseases that complicated and shortened her life.

Rebekah was born with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), however, she wasn’t diagnosed with it until she was thirteen.  Her lungs were already damaged and she had developed bronchiectasis.  

In 2013 she started supplemental oxygen 24/7.

In June 2014 she had a double lung transplant.

Rebekah did well for the next ten years, although there was usually an annual stay in the hospital because of a respiratory infection.

Her sputum grew a nontuberculous mycobacteria and she started taking antibiotics for it in early 2024.  She didn’t tolerate the antibiotics well.  In November 2024 she started a cycle of going in and out of the hospital.

She spent about as much time in the hospital in 2025 as she did at home.

So many different issues were cropping up along with constant lung infections.  In May 2025 she was told her pseudomonas was antibiotic resistant.  In January 2026 she was approved for phage therapy for compassionate use to treat the pseudomonas.

While the phage therapy helped improve her lung function, she developed an infection they couldn’t treat.