lung cancer

[mooseloose]

Stephen Spiro, deputy chair of the British Lung Foundation said: "I think the problem is lung cancer has always had a low level of resonance with the public bbc.co.uk/news/health-22305907

[raptor]

What planet is he on,,,

[jandan]

What? and he is supposed to be knowledgeable! He is NO ADVOCATE for Lung Cancer and BLF what an idiot! It is not a social-economic disease and young people do get it. My DIL had lung cancer - never smoked and was certainly not from a poor family and she died at 37. So bloody angry

[knitter]

I listened to the broadcast and I thought he said that the public perception of lung cancer was poor, it was not his personal view. Sorry I could be wrong though!

[libby7827]

Heaven knows where that puts COPD in the public's perception then, with no advertising, no tv appeals for funds for research? Yet isn't it the second or third biggest killer in the UK?

[Davybaby]

I'm not really surprised about the comment; when you realise the "buying" power of the tobacco industry and the self seeking money grabbing individuals in our society; for example the much acclaimed former leader of this country Mrs, later Baroness Thatcher who after suffering the same fate as she inflicted on Ted Heath took up a lobbying position with the tobacco industry at £50,000pa in spite of her husbands (Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet; hereditary title????) 60/day addiction "despite the fact that he chain-smoked super-strength Senior Service until his death"

Interesting! link:

thefreelibrary.com/MAGGIE+M...

I don't expect this comment will be on here for long before the moderators remove it as some others I have posted. I'm not sure if it questions their political affiliation, or if the tendrils of the tobacco lobby reach as far as BLF.

[scotts35]

I think more have heard lung cancer publicly spoken of than COPD that was a new name for Emphysema in my book. It does not get as much information put out because of the stigma that comes with smoking now a doom we bring on ourselves the same as we do not want to work as a life choice, lies the public have been told and believe

[phillips1]

In every big organisation there is at least one donkey. He must be the BLF's. Bob

[Hidden in reply to phillips1]

heehaw, heehaw

cough, splutter, laugh

[Davybaby]

A bit more contentious stuff before the moderators get back! Oh it mentions that woman’s son..............Ugh in Ricardo Says:

scopeblog.stanford.edu/2012...

[Pepsicoley]

What an absolute half-wit that man is. How dare he!!!!

I was diagnosed four years ago with lung cancer and had my first operation on 30 September 2009. I sincerely hope that I manage to live past April 2014!!!!

At the time of my diagnosis I was a PA married to a Solicitor with a son who was and still is a BSc (Engineering). The bloody disease has nothing to do with social positions.

I started to smoke when I went to College - all my friends smoked and I didn't want to be odd one out. I think we Baby Boomers (born in the late 1940s or early 1050s) started smoking because it was the 'cool' thing to do, it was what most people did.

When I was diagnosed I felt so guilty - self inflicted injury. My Doctors/Surgeon said to me that I should not feel guilty because my generation had been encouraged to smoke.

What this 'advocate' for the BLF has said is the thin end of the wedge!!! Does it really matter (as it seems to matter to him) where we come from, what social group we come from, what we do (or did do) as a job/career or how well off, or not, we are/were?!!?!?!!

Annec

[BLFCommsTeam]

Hi all,

There seems to be some anger at Professor Spiro's comments on the Today Programme on Friday.

The purpose of Professor Sprio's interview was to raise awareness that lung cancer needs to be prioritised as much as other cancers if we are to make progress in terms of helping people survive the disease. This is why he emphasised the number of deaths it causes - the most of any form of cancer - and why he talks a lot about the need for greater investment in research. I'm sure you will all agree that more funding for lung cancer research would be a good thing!

We appreciate that some of you may have been upset by how Professor Spiro described the journey of a typical lung cancer patient. We of course understand this if the experiences of you or your family/friends have been very different from this. However, it should be noted that Professor Spiro did not say that everyone with lung cancer is older or from a lower socio-economic group, but that the statistics show that lung cancer is more common in these groups. He was not trying to stigmatise or generalise in any way, but instead explain some of the reasons why lung cancer does not have the same public profile as other forms of cancer, such as breast cancer. In fact Professor Spiro did try to dispel some of the myths about lung cancer by pointing out that a large percentage of lung cancer patients have never smoked, and that it is wrong to stigmatise it as just a smokers’ disease.

Finally, it has been implied in this thread that Professor Spiro has somehow been influenced by tobacco companies. We feel this is extremely unfair. Professor Spiro has been a respiratory consultant specialising in lung cancer for several decades, and has not only helped many patients in that time, but has also dedicated much of his own time, unpaid, to advise and act as advocate for the British Lung Foundation and organisations such as the UK Lung Cancer Coalition, whose purpose is to improve care for people with lung cancer. He has been an outspoken critic of the tobacco industry in the past, so it would be wrong to suggest that he had anything other than the best interests of lung cancer patients at heart when he conducted that interview. We apologise if any of you were offended by any of his comments, but we do feel that lung cancer is an important issue that needs to be discussed frankly and openly in public if we are to increase levels of research investment and improve treatments and survival rates.

All the best,

Alistair in the BLF Comms team