Fixing lung health in the UK: 10 priorities to accelerate respiratory research and innovation

Every 5 minutes, someone dies from a lung condition in the UK. And yet there’s a lack of political will to fund the research that could save these lives. Today, the Lung Research and Innovation Group have set out 10 priorities the government needs to take seriously to fix the lung research pipeline and fix the nation’s lung health.

If the government and other key stakeholders invest in the 10 respiratory research priorities outlined in this report, we will, address the largest driver of winter pressures in the NHS, make huge savings for the healthcare system, and serve the needs of the 12 million people in the UK who will develop a lung condition during their lifetime.

The Lung Research and Innovation Group is a national group of patient advocacy charities, expert organisations and leading researchers determined to drive progress in respiratory research and innovation.

Read and download the full report here.

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From Jenny, living with Asthma:
Lung conditions aren’t glamorous, so they don’t get the attention and funding they deserve. There is also the perception that some lung conditions are self-inflicted by smoking or working in dirty environments, which is often not the case. Not being able to catch your breath is really scary! You don’t think about it really until you can’t do it. We all have lungs and need our lungs to work to stay alive, so lung health and investment in research and innovation should be more of a priority.

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From Victor, living with COPD:

I think more research into COPD (emphysema) is extremely important because today we don’t understand the mechanism behind its development, so we don’t really know how to stop, let alone reverse, the disease. As patients, we all live with an underlying permanent anxiety due to not knowing how our symptoms will progress – how fast and to what extent. Research is hope for the future.

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