Scott Doyle, who is now helping his infant son, Carter, wage a health battle, was one of the lead organizers of the successful New Lungs for George campaign, which raised about $200,000 for New Gloucester’s George Carman.

While Carman had health insurance, the fundraising effort, which lasted for more than five years, helped the family with travel and other expenses.

Carman is a lifelong sufferer of cystic fibrosis, a debilitating congenital disease that causes thick mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive tract. He was below 25 percent of lung capacity when he finally qualified for a double lung transplant in February 2011 at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

Carman, reached at his New Gloucester home this week, said his lungs are at 133 percent of capacity for a man his age.

“Life is good. I am doing well,” he said.

He will travel to New York Feb. 3 for his fourth annual checkup.

Carman serves as the safety officer at New Gloucester Fire & Rescue and still doesn’t go into burning buildings, but he says he keeps physically fit with daily walks near Sabbathday Lake and at his new job in the 1.2-million-square-foot Walmart distribution center in Lewiston.

–John Balentine

George Carman