We should help to conquer lung disease

Thank you very much for opening up my blog space. My name is Kiara. I am hoping that by the end of this blog I am able to have your support to those with lung based illnesses. My advocacy is the British Lung Foundation which is a nationwide charity raising awareness and supporting people with Lung Based Illnesses. I will abbreviate the charity name to the BLF. The image above is the logo which represents the lungs which you use.


Every year, thousands of adults and children die of a lung based illness. Many people think of conditions such as Asthma as minor but a minor asthma attack could lead to an immediate death. But, sponsoring the BLF can help to treat people of their illnesses quicker and also help to keep running help sessions of a minimum of once a month. Even though this charity does not give money to the victims of a disease they provide many areas in the country for trees to memorialize a loved member of a family who died from a lung based illness.

My reasoning for choosing this charity is because it is very close to heart. It leads to a story of my Granddad. He had a collapsed lung which was caused by smoking. He then treated himself to a holiday in Portugal where he lost his life. My Auntie, who is the daughter of my granddad, will be very soon running the London Marathon of April 2011. This charity is also helping my Auntie to fundraise for a memorial tree to remember my Granddad which does cost £2000. The local area for trees is in Bovey Tracey, just outside of Torbay which very soon will be an important place to me.

The BLF has one major aim for the 21st century; to conquer Lung Disease. Even though people like me cannot help to find a cure hands on, we can help to raise money for those who need the money to afford treatment and technology to make this happen. The best way the charity can advertise itself is with celebrity spokespeople. One well known celebrity is Melanie Chisholm who is a former member of the Girl group, the spice girls, who does help the charity by raising money for it and talking about the BLF. Another person is Dame Judi Dench. Recently, she was the radio dj of radio 1 for one evening which was to raise awareness of the charity and raise money for them. This event was very successful.

The charity also advertises itself on their own. The way they do this is by posters; website (www.lunguk.org) and television adverts (can be seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMcZIMwTU1w). The charity also has been involved in many events; one is having a stall at the babbacombe fair. This is one local event and also they have a current campaign in which is called the children's charter. Therefore, the charity not only advertises themselves they do work together in which does help to raise awareness of many illnesses, one is mesothemlioma which had a special day on the 2nd July.

During autumn 2010, it awarded some grants. One was £100,000 for Sam Jones of University College, London for his work developing a new way to destroy mesothemlioma cancer cells while preserving healthy lung tissue. Even though the charity is able to help others, they want to gain support from you so hopefully you can do the same.

Could you please answer a few questions which will help me to find out how many people share the same views as me?

1. May you please confirm to me the country you come from (if you are not from the UK) and leave me the nearest city or town you live in?

2. Would you now support the British Lung Foundation? Why?

3. Have I changed your attitude towards this charity? If so, how?

4. Are you now more aware of the Charity?

Thank you very much for reading my blog.