We’ve only just scraped the surface in lung health research – why I’m running the London Marathon 2026

I am beyond excited to be running the London Marathon 2026 for Asthma + Lung UK. I’ve always wanted to run the London Marathon and I’m running for Asthma + Lung UK because it’s so important to improve clinical care for those who have asthma or other lung conditions

This charity means a lot to me as I’m currently undergoing a PhD at the University of Southampton looking at how psychological therapies can help treat breathlessness in asthma.

Sometimes people think they’re breathless when they’re not and we don’t know why

Clinicians have found that people living with asthma will come into the clinic reporting high levels of breathlessness. We call this their subjective marker of breathlessness – so what they perceive their symptoms to be. But when we actually look at objective markers of breathlessness, tests like spirometry, we notice that there’s no objective sign that they’re actually out of breath.

So what we have is this clear misalignment between objective and subjective markers of breathlessness – what’s actually happening and what the person with asthma thinks is happening.

We still don’t understand how psychological treatments for asthma works

Even though we have pharmacological treatments for asthma, like inhalers, we still find high subjective ratings of breathlessness in the absence of high objective markers from people with asthma. This might be because these treatments only target the biological basis of breathlessness when actually, psychology might play an important role.

And while we already have psychological therapies that help reduce the severity of symptoms and improve the quality of life for people living with asthma, we still don’t understand why these therapies work.

So my PhD is looking at understanding these mechanisms, to try and understand how and why psychological therapies might be helpful in managing breathlessness in asthma.

We’ve only just scraped the surface in lung health research

Doing this PhD has shown me how under-researched asthma and other respiratory conditions are. Now charities such as Asthma + Lung UK help fund research like mine to allow us to understand more and more about respiratory disease as we’ve only just scraped the surface. I also have personal connections to the charity, as I was diagnosed with asthma at a young age. Both my personal and professional connections makes taking on this challenge even more special.

Training is tough but I remind myself that it’s for such a good cause

I think the most enjoyable part about this training so far has been the ability to go outside. When I started this journey, I thought it would be quite easy. However, I was very quickly humbled. Running for 2.5 hours is truly something on a Sunday morning when it’s chucking it down with rain. It’s been tough. It’s just reminding yourself that you’re doing it for such a good cause. And I now genuinely can’t wait for marathon day.