This nonprofit created by Pete Proimos provides financial support and fertility assistance for adults living with cystic fibrosis
by Rachel Simon

When Martha and Scott Bryan decided they wanted to have a baby, the Fayetteville couple knew it wasn’t going to be an easy road. Scott has cystic fibrosis (CF), a lifelong genetic disease that thickens the body’s mucus and causes serious infections and breathing problems, among other issues. In the majority of men with CF, one such issue is the blocking of the vas deferens, leading to infertility. In order to conceive, the Bryans needed to do IVF. But in addition to the procedure being far from a guaranteed success, it boasts a hefty price tag. Even after contributing much of their savings to the cost in early 2024, they still faced a substantial balance.

“It was a really stressful time,” Scott recalls. “The financial burden was definitely real.”

That burden was lifted, however, after Scott learned from his doctor about the Filotimo Foundation, a then-new North Carolina nonprofit dedicated to supporting the needs of adults with CF, including fertility treatment. With curiosity but low expectations, Scott reached out to founder Pete Proimos, who asked how much money the Bryans still owed. 

“I told him we had about $10,000 left, and he said, we got that and sent a check to pay off the rest of our balance,” Scott recounts. “His generosity was game-changing.”

The couple’s daughter, Harper, arrived in November 2024, making her the first baby born with help from Filotimo — but certainly not the last. Since its launch in 2023, the foundation has helped thousands of adults with CF achieve similar dreams, connecting them with fertility clinics for consultations and paying for some or all of the resulting treatment needs. 

Filotimo Foundation takes its name from a Greek word that essentially means, “to give without expecting anything in return.” But Proimos says his goal in starting the foundation was less selfless than “selfish.”

Growing up, “I was told multiple times, do not plan for anything 10 years out,” says the 41-year-old Raleigh resident and parent of three. Like most patients, he was diagnosed with CF as an infant and still experiences complications of the disease. People with his condition rarely made it to their 18th birthdays.

When he was younger, Proimos hid his condition from his peers, making excuses for his constant cough and frequent hospital stays. “You just feel out of place, so you do your best to hide it,” he explains now. “You try your best to not feel like your end is coming while not telling anybody about it. It’s very lonely.”

Still, Proimos did his best to live a full life: attending college, working for his family manufacturing business and marrying his high school sweetheart (one of the few people to whom he revealed his diagnosis). But in 2019, a pivotal drug called Trikafta was introduced, which dramatically improves lung function in most CF patients, including Proimos. Suddenly, his future opened up. But like many other adults with CF who had previously been told they were on borrowed time, he hadn’t planned a long-term career path. He was in the fortunate position of being able to meet his basic needs while he figured out next steps, but he was keenly aware that so many others with CF have to deal with large medical bills and disappearing disability coverage on top of a lack of job opportunities.

“The support system for people over 18 doesn’t exist,” he says. 

In 2023, he heard that a couple whose daughter passed away from CF were planning to shutter Spiritus Project, the nonprofit they’d begun in her honor to help sick adults. Proimos’ family had just sold their business, and he was out of a job. The timing, he says now, was “divine intervention.” After connecting with the couple, he began working directly with the adults who had been working with the foundation, using funds from the family’s business sale to provide whatever support they needed: commercial-grade medical equipment, car payments and so on. His referrals came through UNC Hospitals, where the couple’s late daughter was treated, but as the number of requests grew, Proimos realized the need — and potential for impact — went beyond what one man or hospital could provide.

“I panicked because I also have a chronic disease that’s killing me,” he says. The organization needed a support system.

Up until that point, Proimos had lied to others about the motivation for his CF advocacy work, saying that he had a cousin with the disease instead of revealing his own fight. But he quickly realized that he’d have a much better shot of convincing people to help if he created his own foundation — and shared his own story.

“I had to have this realization that, if you’re not gonna tell people, this thing’s dead,” he says. As difficult as those conversations were, they resulted in enough donations, action and support to lift Filotimo off the ground.

Today, the nonprofit partners with nearly 60 hospitals and over 150 fertility clinics nationwide and is currently testing a program with Wake Tech Community College to help students with CF who miss class due to sickness achieve degrees. To receive financial help, applicants must already be getting medical treatment from a clinic partnered with Filotimo (if they don’t, the foundation will work to create a new partnership) and have doctors and social workers attached to their case. The Filotimo team connects with these professionals to discuss the person’s needs and then provides the appropriate funding, no strings attached, whether it be to help them pay off rent, attain a degree or access life-saving medications.

Under Proimos’ leadership, the Filotimo team has given away about $1.8 million in grants thus far, with a hope of reaching 75 percent of the approximately 40,000 American adults living with CF by the end of the year. In addition to raising funds through donations, the foundation holds multiple events each year in Raleigh, including a gala in May, Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month (this year’s is on May 29). 

The events also give adults with CF the opportunity to connect with one another, something Proimos says is at the heart of Filotomo’s mission. “When you reach out to us, I want that to be the last time you feel you’re doing it alone,” he says. “It won’t be the last time that you go through something hard, but it will be the last time you feel like you’re by yourself.”

The Bryans, now a happy family of three, can attest to that firsthand. Last December, they brought Harper to Filotimo’s Lung Run fundraising event in Cary to meet Proimos and support the CF cause. “Everyone knew who Harper was,” Martha says, adding that the foundation has offered to help her and Scott again if they decide to further expand their family.

For Proimos, helping families like the Bryans solidify their futures is what Filotimo is all about. “In a world where you feel like you’re being destroyed by time,” he says, “there’s nothing more important than trying to create it by giving it to someone else.” 

This article originally appeared in the April 2026 issue of WALTER magazine.