Help us end the diagnosis delay and improve the future of lung health research

Struggling to breathe without answers 

Struggling to breathe can be terrifying. Especially when you don’t know the cause. Now imagine feeling breathless for years without knowing what’s wrong. Even if you manage to get an appointment with your GP, you still don’t get any answers, and referrals to specialists are slow coming. Meanwhile, you start to find it hard to do even simple, everyday things like walking upstairs. You might have to give up work or doing the things that you love. You may even have several emergency trips to hospital before you get an explanation.  

This is what thousands and thousands of people in the UK live with every day.  

Delayed diagnosis cuts lives short 

A delayed diagnosis means that people can’t receive the right care or treatment. And without the right treatment, their quality of life and even their life expectancy can be severely impacted. It can mean a greater risk of life-threatening asthma attacks or exacerbations. And it can mean irreversible damage to their lungs and a faster progression of their lung condition. 

The right diagnosis at the right time means that lung scarring can be slowed, lung function can be preserved and quality of life can be improved. It means that people can live longer, healthier and happier lives and spend more time with their loved ones. 

Early diagnosis means early understanding 

But early diagnosis doesn’t just benefit people living with a lung condition now. It also benefits people who will go on to develop a lung condition in the future. 

Early diagnosis gives researchers access to studying the very early development and biology of a lung condition. This allows them to better understand how it progresses before irreversible damage occurs. This can be done through samples of either tissue, or for most lung conditions, sputum (or phlegm).    

This helps researchers develop more effective, targeted treatments based on early changes to our lung cells. It can also help develop personalised medicines - if we know more about how a condition differs from person to person, we can develop better, kinder treatments for them.  

It helps researchers understand very early signs and symptoms that can be subtle or easily mistaken for something benign or more common - this helps develop better, more accurate diagnostic tools. 

Protecting the future of lung health research 

The more we know about a condition, the better we're able to target research to finding a solution. That means we can invest money into research projects that will have the most impact. 

It can help us find ways to prevent lung conditions developing, like we see with cancer screening. If we know more about how a disease develops in the early stages, we can help people be aware of early signs and symptoms. This means they won’t wait too long before realising something's wrong and receiving treatment. 

That’s why it’s crucial that we find better and faster ways to diagnose lung conditions. Not just people living with lung conditions now but also for people who – like many of us – will go on to develop lung conditions in the future.