Thank you all for helping us raise awareness of Pulmonary Fibrosis during #Breathtember, World Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month (September).

On each day of #Breathtember, we posted a fact about Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis – here’s the full list:

• #Breathtember Day 1 IPF Fact – Pulmonary Fibrosis describes a group of interstitial lung diseases where the lungs become progressively stiffer and smaller, eventually leading to low oxygen levels in the blood, making it difficult to breathe.
• #Breathtember Day 2 IPF Fact – You can’t reverse the scarring from IPF.
• #Breathtember Day 3 IPF Fact – Most patients with IPF survive between 3-5 years. Only 20 – 25% of patients with IPF will live beyond 10 years.
• #Breathtember Day 4 IPF Fact – Symptoms of IPF are similar to asthma, COPD and congestive heart failure and are hard to diagnose.
• #Breathtember Day 5 IPF Fact – IPF can affect people of all ages, but around 85% are in people over the age of 70.
• #Breathtember Day 6 IPF Fact – 60% of patients have symptoms for a year before they are diagnosed with IPF – get it checked out!
• #Breathtember Day 7 IPF Fact – Currently, the only way of surviving an IPF diagnosis is a lung transplant, of which fewer than 200 are available each year.
• #Breathtember Day 8 IPF Fact – Pulmonary Fibrosis can be genetic: genes can play a significant role, especially in cases of familial pulmonary fibrosis. Understanding these genetic links can help patients and their families make informed health decisions. Read more here. 
• #Breathtember Day 9 IPF Fact – IPF kills more people a year than conditions such as leukaemia in the UK. Over £16 million per year is invested in leukaemia research, and only £2.5 million is invested in IPF.
• #Breathtember Day 10 IPF Fact – IPF mainly affects older people, and deaths are 60% more common in men.
• #Breathtember Day 11 IPF Fact – Not all autoimmune diseases cause lung scarring, but many with connective tissue disease develop pulmonary fibrosis. https://bit.ly/3vK1MOC
• #Breathtember Day 12 IPF Fact – Environmental factors (particularly certain types of dust) may play a role in IPF.
• #Breathtember Day 13 IPF Fact – Before treatments were found through research, only 1 in 5 patients with IPF survived more than 5 years.
• #Breathtember Day 14 IPF Fact – In the 1990s, there were 2,500 new cases of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis per year in the UK; in 2020, there were 6,000 new cases in the UK – we need to find out why this is increasing.
• #Breathtember Day 15 IPF Fact – IPF is thought to be a problem of wound healing. Platelets are the sticky cells that help your blood clot but also help wounds to heal in other ways. https://bit.ly/3cjYGCr
• #Breathtember Day 16 IPF Fact – There are 5K deaths every year in the UK from Pulmonary Fibrosis – that is 5K too many! Support our research to change that stat: https://bit.ly/3D86cwy
• #Breathtember Day 17 IPF Fact – A timely diagnosis of IPF or progressive fibrosing ILD reduces unnecessary investigations and could improve outcomes through starting treatment early.
• #Breathtember Day 18 IPF Fact – People with IPF can’t control their coughing fits, patients can cough up to 520 times per day, which can be more than the average COVID, COPD or asthma patient.
• #Breathtember Day 19 IPF Fact -1% of every UK death is from Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. More people die from IPF than leukaemia each year in the UK.
• #Breathtember Day 20 IPF Fact – Pulmonary Fibrosis is not catching!
• #Breathtember Day 21 IPF Fact – Whilst IPF lacks a known cause, did you know that exposure to cigarette smoking, stone, metal, wood and organic dusts could be a risk factor?
• #Breathtember Day 22 IPF Fact – This is the research we do at UCL/H on Pulmonary Fibrosis – https://bit.ly/3poHHpN
• #Breathtember Day 23 IPF Fact – Currently, lung transplantation is the only cure for IPF, but this is not a realistic option for the majority and the only way forward is researching better treatments.
• #Breathtember Day 24 IPF Fact – Research shows that approximately 5,000 people die from Pulmonary Fibrosis in the UK each year; that equates to 7% of all respiratory deaths.
• #Breathtember Day 25 IPF Fact – Pulmonary Fibrosis causes progressive damage of the lungs which leads to scarring of the gas exchange surface area, hindering breathing.
• #Breathtember Day 26 IPF Fact – Pulmonary Fibrosis is terminal, with a worse outcome than most cancers. It involves scarring on the lungs and the main symptoms are coughing and breathlessness.
• #Breathtember Day 27 IPF Fact – Around 5% of patients with IPF have another family member with the condition.
• #Breathtember Day 28 IPF Fact – IPF kills more in the UK than more well-known diseases such as leukaemia, stomach cancer and skin cancer.
• #Breathtember Day 29 IPF Fact – 6 million are living with IPF globally. The incidence of IPF is increasing worldwide.
• #Breathtember Day 30 IPF Fact – Read about our work at UCL/H on IPF: https://bit.ly/3poHHpN

If you would like to donate to help us find better treatments and a cure for Pulmonary Fibrosis, please visit our donation page – thank you for your support!