Sarah Woolnough, CEO of Asthma + Lung UK, talks through the week that the charity celebrated one year since unveiling its new strategy, name and brand. Now one year into its five-year plan to reduce morbidity and mortality from lung conditions by 20%, the charity planned a week of activity to mark the occasion and engage supporters and stakeholders in its mission to transform lung health.

Monday
I started what shaped up to be a very busy and exciting few days by recording a ‘start the week’ video to staff, to ensure everyone was up to speed on this pivotal week for the charity.

Tomorrow we are set to launch our new End the Lung Health Lottery campaign – a culmination of months of analysis, planning and hard work from teams across the charity including data analysis, digital engagement and policy, to reveal the places in the UK with the highest and lowest rates of emergency hospital admissions and deaths from lung conditions. Since merging into a single charity, from Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, in 2020, it’s been a priority for me to build a collaborative culture where everyone understands the steps we’re taking to reach our vision of a world where everyone has healthy lungs, so internal communications like weekly update videos are important.

I spent the rest of the day having regular meetings with stakeholders including with clean air experts who help translate research into policy and practice. We discussed latest and emerging clean air research, and how we can help communicate it to policy makers and the public over the coming months. I also had a regular catch-up with the CEO of the British Thoracic Society, the medical society representing the lung workforce. I went home this evening to spend time with my children when one of my colleagues called to tell me we’d had a phone call from BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and that they wanted to speak to me tomorrow about our new analysis. After hurrying small people to bed, I spent the evening re-reading my briefing notes before getting an early night.

Tuesday

I started the day rather earlier than usual, with a 5am alarm and made my way to the Radio 4 studio to talk to Nick Robinson about our new End the Lung Health Lottery campaign. I told listeners that for decades lung disease has been sidelined and underfunded up and down the country, but our new analysis has revealed a stark lung health inequality, with people in the North West of England experiencing higher rates of emergency hospital admissions and deaths for lung conditions than elsewhere in the country. It’s unfair and we need to tackle the lung health lottery head-on.

Getting lung conditions on the news agenda is no small feat, given how neglected and misunderstood lung health has historically been, but it’s crucial to raising awareness and advocating for change. As a charity we’re working hard to rebrand respiratory – to challenge misconceptions and educate people on what they can do to manage their lung condition, advocate for cleaner air, and demand more investment in services and lung health research.

I headed to the office to chair my first meeting of the Healthy Air Coalition (HAC) CEOs group. I have recently taken on the Chair role, and it was a great opportunity to get together with other members and discuss our priorities for achieving cleaner air, including campaigning in the lead up to the next General Election.

Wednesday

Today we held our annual parliamentary reception in Portcullis House, welcoming over 100 stakeholders including many politicians to discuss lung health with us, and calling on them to champion it.

I gave a speech alongside MP Liz Twist, our event sponsor, and a Deputy Chair of the APPG on respiratory diseases. We also heard from two women living with lung conditions, who talked passionately about the impact of poor lung health on their lives.

One of them was Helen, 40, a mum-of-three. Helen was recently diagnosed with mesothelioma which is usually linked to exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma is a horrible disease, an aggressive and incurable type of cancer which most commonly affects the lining of the lungs and has a very poor prognosis. But Helen’s been taking part in a research study that we funded, which is helping to extend her life and allowing her to spend more precious time with her children. Helen’s story demonstrates the desperate need for more research into lung conditions, but for decades this has been an area of investment that’s woefully lacking. That’s why it was so exciting to also announce a new partnership we are forming with HDRUK, the national institute for health data science, to improve our understanding of lung conditions through improved data linkage and analysis. I hope this will help thousands more people like Helen to live well for longer.

Along with the Asthma + Lung UK team, I had some very positive conversations, including with Health Minister Helen Whately MP. We spoke about the new Major Conditions Strategy her Department is developing, and the opportunity this could present to improve lung health. Helen invited me to sit on the External Advisory Group for the strategy.

Thursday

We had our first Trustee Board Meeting of the year, and it was brilliant to welcome the Trustees to our London office. We reflected on the past year and had a deep dive discussion on our research strategy. We are ambitious to fund more research ourselves as a charity, as well as leverage more money from the government and industry. We also talked about our fundraising and financial position, always critical for a charity reliant on voluntary donations.

Friday

After a busy week, a day of catching up on emails and signing off reports was much needed. I always try to do the school pick up on a Friday. My children’s primary school has been running Asthma + Lung UK’s ‘Clean Air Champions’ scheme to raise awareness of the importance of clean air and to encourage the children to campaign in their local areas. My children told me about an assembly they’d had to discuss the air quality monitoring we’ve done outside their school, which has shown dangerously high levels of pollution and the steps they want to take to improve the air. Naturally, they also told me how ravenous they were, how the snacks I’d brought didn’t fill them up and so on! A good end to a busy but successful week.

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