During the month of September, we celebrated #Breathtember – World Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month
A massive THANK YOU to all those who joined in on our brand new Step up for #Breathtember challenge – the aim was to walk 12,000 steps every day (in recognition for Breathing Matters’ 12 years of working to find a cure for pulmonary fibrosis). All those who completed this challenge will receive this fabulous medal. Thank you for your stepping; thank you for your fundraising; thank you for sharing on your social platforms; and thank you for raising important awareness of pulmonary fibrosis and Breathing Matters within the community. Breathing Matters works tirelessly to find a cure for this fatal disease and is always searching for better treatments. Your donations and remarkable support keep us going.
On each day of #Breathtember, we posted a fact about Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis – here’s the full list:
#Breathtember IPF Fact 1 – 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 IPF Fact 2 – You can’t reverse the scarring from Pulmonary Fibrosis.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 3 – Most patients with IPF survive between 3 to 5 years. Only 20 to 25 percent of patients with IPF will live beyond 10 years.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 4 – Symptoms of IPF are similar to asthma, COPD and congestive heart failure and are hard to diagnose.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 5 – IPF can affect people of all ages, but around 85% are in people over the age of 70.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 6 – 60% of patients have symptoms for a year before they are diagnosed with IPF – get it checked out?
#Breathtember IPF Fact 7 – Currently, the only way of surviving an IPF diagnosis is a lung transplant, of which fewer than 200 are available each year.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 8 – This is the research we do at #UCL/H on Pulmonary Fibrosis:
#Breathtember IPF Fact 9 – IPF kills more people a year than conditions such as leukaemia in the UK. Over £16 million a year is invested in leukaemia research, and only £2.5 million is invested in IPF.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 10 – IPF mainly affects older people, and deaths are 60% more common in men.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 11 – Some people may be genetically predisposed to develop Pulmonary Fibrosis when their lungs are damaged.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 12 – Environmental factors (particularly exposure to certain types of dusts) may play a role in Pulmonary Fibrosis
#Breathtember IPF Fact 13 – Before treatments were found through research, only 1 in 5 patients with IPF survived more than 5 years.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 14 – In 1990s, there were 2,500 new cases of IPF 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 IPF Fact 15 – 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.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 16 – There are 5,000 deaths every year in the UK from Pulmonary Fibrosis – that is 5,000 too many!
#Breathtember IPF Fact 17 – A timely diagnosis of IPF or progressive fibrosing ILD reduces unnecessary investigations and could improve outcomes through starting treatment early.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 18 – People with PF / IPF can’t control their coughing fits, patients can cough up to 520 times per day, which can be more than the average COVID-19, COPD or asthma patient.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 19 – 1% of every UK death is from IPF. More people die from IPF than leukaemia each year in the UK.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 20 – Pulmonary Fibrosis is not catching!
#Breathtember IPF Fact 21 – 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 IPF Fact 22 – Have a look at the research carried out at UCL/H on Pulmonary Fibrosis:
#Breathtember IPF Fact 23 – 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 IPF Fact 24 – Research shows that approximately 5,000 people die from Pulmonary Fibrosis in the UK each year; this equates to 7% of all respiratory deaths.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 25 – Pulmonary Fibrosis causes progressive damage of the lungs which leads to scarring of the gas exchange surface area, hindering breathing.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 26 – 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 IPF Fact 27 – Around 5% of patients with IPF have another family member with the condition.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 28 – IPF kills more in the UK than more well-known diseases such as leukaemia, stomach cancer and skin cancer.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 29 – 6 million are living with IPF globally. The incidence of IPF is increasing worldwide.
#Breathtember IPF Fact 30 – This is the research we do at UCL/H on Pulmonary Fibrosis:
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