Breathe Easy Sheffield Group

Hi, Everyone, I 'm Terry and I am part of the Breathe Easy Sheffield Support Group and we are part of the British Lung Foundation which exists to encourage and help to raise awareness in COPD, which are different conditions which affect a person's breathing capacity.We are here in Sheffield to try and support the 50000 people who are troubled by COPD. The more people who get involved publicly, the more progress that will be made for us and our families in the future. Please try and help us to help you all.

Best regards

Terry

Hi Terry. I am a COPD sufferer and would like more information about the group

Hi, Terry.

I'm horrified to hear that 1 in 10 Sheffielders have COPD. That's a shocking number of people.

Hi Terry

My mum has COPD so any advice you could give would be most welcome.

What help exactly do you need?

Do you get involved in trying to tackle areas of heavy pollution in Sheffield?

Do you get involved in trying to tackle areas of heavy pollution in Sheffield?

He seems to be concerned about COPD in Sheffield as a whole, not specific areas. Main cause of COPD is smoking, not pollution.

He seems to be concerned about COPD in Sheffield as a whole, not specific areas. Main cause of COPD is smoking, not pollution.

For the moment.

COPD is also caused by pollution. And, of course, pollution negatively effects people who have COPD through smoking too.

Main cause of COPD is smoking, not pollution.

Main cause of COPD is smoking, not pollution.

see above.

Hello, I'm very interested to hear about the group, I have had COPD for quite a few years now, and as time has gone on it has become worse.I have always been told it is due to smoking, and I'll hold my hands up as I used to smoke, but been packed up 25years , but to be fair I'd never heard of such a disease, we all know about cancer but COPD? never. I'd be interested to know more about the group. Thankyou

What is COPD?

COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Terms people may be more familiar with, which are encompassed in COPD, are chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It is mainly an inflammatory disease which slowly leads to an irriversible decline in your ability to breathe, through both blocked airways (fixed obstruction) and eventually destruction of your air sacs which allow oxygen to enter your blood.

COPD is primarily found in smokers and the more you smoke the more likely it is you will get it, but rare forms are seen in cases of chronic exposure to high levels of dusts and fumes. This is more common in developing countries where for example, people cook on open fires in poorly ventilated spaces.

There are also significant genetic components to the risk of getting COPD, it affects something like 20% of smokers. By 2020 it is estimated that COPD will be the 3rd biggest cause of death and 5th largest cause of disability world wide.

It is worth mentioning that funding for research in respiratory diseases as a whole is dwarfed by that spent on cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Perhaps this is largely due to the fact that smoking related diseases disproportionately affect the poor and advocacy groups are comparatively much weaker.