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Dame Helena Shovelton, Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation, explains how exercise classes for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease are changing lives
The British Lung Foundation (BLF) is a charity which provides support to people affected by lung disease. One of the ways the BLF does this is by running a network of self-help groups for people called Breathe Easy. There are over 200 groups throughout the UK and they cater for everyone with any of the 40+ lung conditions. A characteristic of many of the patients is their breathlessness and a big issue is their need to exercise responsibly and effectively.
For most people who are breathless there is an in-built need to pause to recover the normal pattern of breathing, yet for people with many of the lung diseases there is no such respite. In addition there is a complicated counter-intuitive need to keep exercising in order to maintain muscle tone and help prolong a good quality of life. However, patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) tell the BLF that this information is often missing in the advice they receive on being diagnosed.
COPD is a debilitating progressive disease which experts believe three million people have,1 although they are currently without diagnosis, and 900,000 are known to have.2 This results in a lot of breathless people who may be doing exactly the wrong thing (avoiding exercise) because they have not been told differently. The price of this lack of advice is high - quality of life diminishes with the lack of ability to move around.
The BLF's role is to try and redress this balance. The organisation puts the needs of people with lung disease at the top of their agenda by campaigning for improved treatment and care for patients, including the need for pulmonary rehabilitation and follow on exercise. Pulmonary rehabilitation is, according to people in the Breathe Easy support groups, the most life changing treatment they are offered. It is a programme, often based over eight or ten weeks, that takes people with serious lung disease through a combination of exercise training and education about their lung disease. For many people with COPD, as well as their carers, this is vital.
When diagnosed with COPD it is...