Campaign Update:

Since the Learn More Breathe Better campaign was launched in January 2007, we’ve seen growing momentum, greater awareness, and increased media attention to the #4 leading killer in the US. We thank you, our campaign partners and supporters, for your many contributions to the successes the campaign has achieved over the last year.  Numerous COPD education and awareness events and activities have taken place across the country, profiles of patients and news about symptoms and treatment have begun to penetrate local and national media, and more and more people are becoming aware and getting involved.

While we are grateful for this success we know that we have only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to generating the level of awareness and understanding deserving of the disease.  We need your continued support and we ask you to encourage others to join us.  Together, we can help people manage COPD, breathe easier, and live better.

Partners in Motion…Dey, L.P.

Through a grant to the COPD Foundation, Dey L.P., a pharmaceutical company that manufactures and markets allergy and airway medications, is supporting the development and distribution of 30,000 awareness kits for primary care providers.  The kit, which will contain materials for use in primary care offices and waiting rooms, will include  the COPD Learn More Breathe Better educational video, fact sheets for patients and those at-risk, a resource card for healthcare professionals, a materials order form, and a copy of COPD Digest.   

“We are proud to join the COPD Foundation in support of the NHLBI’s effort to increase public awareness of COPD,” said Carolyn Myers, PH.D., President of Dey, L.P.  The kits will be delivered by Dey’s sales team in the coming month.

^ top

Spotlight on…John McGuire, Mobile Spirometry Unit (MSU)

If you ask John McGuire where he calls home, he’d say he lives with his wife and one of his three daughters in Burnsville, Minnesota.  But for more than a year now, his “second home” has been the cab of his truck as he travels across the country providing free spirometry testing and COPD information as the Mobile Spirometry Unit (MSU) Project Director for the COPD Foundation.

The MSU, a 12-foot trailer featuring the Learn More Breathe Better campaign theme, has been touring health fairs, expos, and other meetings and conventions since the beginning of 2007. Since then, John has logged nearly 60,000 miles, helping to provide more than 11,000 spirometry tests in 23 cities across the country.

“We were looking for ways to reach people who have COPD symptoms but who are yet undiagnosed,” John said. “The true value of the MSU is the ability to get out there and bring this care and knowledge to people who are unaware that they may have COPD.”

The COPD Foundation works with the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) to secure professional respiratory therapists to administer the screenings and provide information to those who may be at risk.  “The feedback has been great,” John said. “We constantly have people telling us what a difference this has made in their lives.”

To find out when the MSU will be in a town near you, visit our Event Listing Page or call the COPD Foundation at 866-316-COPD (2673).  You can also find additional information on the COPD Foundation Web site at www.copdfoundation.org.

^ top