George Nicola

Why did I pick Asthma+Lung?

For those of you who aren’t aware, shortly after a family holiday in Cyprus in September 2022, my Dad was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer. In the space of a year, he went from jumping from the top deck of a boat into the Mediterranean to being chair-bound and requiring an oxygen machine full-time. He peacefully took his final breath in November 2023, surrounded by his full family and close friends in our family living room.

As someone who has suffered from asthma my whole life, I hugely empathise with anyone who suffers from a lung condition, regardless of its cause. Lung conditions are quite unique in how they affect people's lives. Anyone who has tried breathing through a straw or holding their breath for a bit too long will have no doubt experienced that panicking feeling when you can feel your heart rate getting faster while increasing in intensity. In most cases you can just remove the straw or take a big breath, and after maybe a minute or so, you are back to feeling somewhat normal. 

Depending on the severity, people with chronic lung conditions can have that experience sprung upon them any time of the day or night, whether they like it or not. In severe cases, as for my Dad, this was happening multiple times a day. To make it worse, they don’t always get the luxury of taking a big breath of air to relieve the panic; they just have to relax and wait for their body to settle down. In many cases, people with asthma use inhalers to relieve this feeling, but more severe lung conditions cannot be relieved quite so quickly. 

With that in mind, consider that 1 in 5 people in the UK will develop a lung condition in their lifetime and that, in the UK, more people die from lung conditions than anywhere else in western Europe. 

The most common causes of these conditions are smoking, outdoor air pollution, poorly constructed housing susceptible to mould and dust mites and occupational hazards (dust, harsh chemicals etc.) These causes are most prevalent in poorer parts of the UK, where there are fewer safe job opportunities, poorer housing conditions and worse air pollution (66% of man-made carcinogens are emitted from the 10% most deprived English city wards). 

Smoking is of course a big part of this, but it is not as simple as many people think. I often battled with the thought that “well if you choose to smoke, that is up to you and you know the effects” etc. etc. 

However, the following suggests to me that the issue is more complex and not as much of a ‘choice’ as many people believe it to be: 

• Smoking rates among people with a mental health problem are around 40% 

• 31.3% of people with a mental illness smoke 15+ cigarettes a day, with 23.3% smoking 1-14 a day.

• 23% of those earning under £10,000 are smokers compared with 11% of those earning £40,000+

• Smoking rates in prisons are around 80% compared to the 14.9% in the rest of the UK. 

• People born into a family of smokers are more likely to smoke

Without getting too much into this debate, my (current) take is that these individuals are given a much harder task of either quitting smoking or avoiding it altogether. While the sale of cigarettes to those born after 2009 will be banned (which I am personally in favour of), there is still a huge portion of the population that will suffer from the effects of smoking (and other aforementioned causes) without being given the proper support, education and environment to make a change. To make matters worse, when the condition gets more serious, the ability to accurately diagnose and treat effectively is well below par at this stage. 

Asthma+Lung UK not only strives to constantly improve the support given to those who need it, but they fund research into these conditions so they can be diagnosed earlier and with better accuracy. They are pushing to triple public funding in this area to £150m each year to find better treatments and cures, campaign for cleaner air, promote better working conditions for those in poorer areas and provide up to date education, studies and blogs on how people can reduce the chances of developing a lung condition in the first place. 

I’m only really scratching the surface here, but you can find out more by visiting: https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/

Thank you for reading this far, any donations are greatly appreciated (and needed!)

If you are unsure whether to donate, I encourage you to consider that: 

• The average cost of a pint in the UK is about £4.80

• The average cost of a pint in London is about £6.75

• The average cost of a coffee in the UK is £3.40

• £10 could cover somebody's travel to hospital to take part in a clinical trial developing vital new treatments. 

• £15 Could pay for 75 microscope slides for lab experiments. 

Thank you for reading; please donate generously. 

George