BLF on Radio 4's Today Programme talking about lung cancer - have a listen

[BLFCommsTeam]

audioboo.fm/boos/1354093-lo...

Hi all,

Professor Stephen Spiro, the British Lung Foundation's Deputy Chairman was on Radio 4's Today Programme this morning. If you missed it please find the clip above. Professor Spiro talked about lung cancer and the lack of funding it receives along with Catherine Foot from The King's Fund.

It's really worth a listen and great that lung cancer is getting some high profile air time!

[Lakeland]

Looking out for COPD high profile air time !

[Puffthemagicdragon]

I'm all for awareness of lung cancer but COPD, IPF and other lesser known lung problems should be aired alongside lung cancer to get it across to the public. Being higher up the WHO list of diseases than lung cancer, it just doesn't make any sense.

[BLFCommsTeam]

Definitely Puff and Lakeland, ideally we'd like the media to cover lung disease more broadly and focus on COPD and IPF too but for a 4 minute interview it's a big ask. Also the interview was tied in to the new newly-formed Lung Cancer Alliance so they would have been unlikely to ask about other disease areas.

The good news is, by getting the British Lung Foundation into higher profile media, we are raising awareness of other lung diseases by proxy. Providing an authoritative voice about lung conditions as a whole is very important.

The BLF is working all the time to build relationships with journalists and encouraging them to talk about conditions like COPD and IPF but the media is very fluid and often they need a 'hook' to talk about certain health conditions.

If you're interested our media volunteer in Sheffield did a great job of raising awareness of COPD in The Star which has a huge readership in the South Yorkshire region: thestar.co.uk/news/health/h...

[cofdrop-UK]

Well done BLF and Prof Spiro. Lung cancer is very much the 'poor relation' in cancer terms when it comes to public awareness and I would imagine funding.

There seems to me to less awareness about lung disease in general. Most people have heard of asthma, and to some extent know that children with cystic fibrosis have physio, but definitely not that the physio is necessary because of bronchiectasis. Obviously cfers have many other problems, but I doubt many folks appreciate that. People in the main, other than those in the respiratory world, have never heard of bronchiectasis or will tell you 'my mum gets that'.

So your efforts at BLF are very necessary and much appreciated. Thank you.

cx

[BLFCommsTeam]

Hi, if anyone wanted to know more about the Lung Cancer Alliance I mentioned earlier - here's some more information about it: blf.org.uk/News/Detail/New-...

[cofdrop-UK]

Thank you. Those figures are very scary.

cx