Dr. Alex Chapman Asthma Ambassador

As a Specialist in Respiratory Medicine I have chosen to become an Ambassador to raise awareness and funds for Asthma. Why is this? Here are my reasons:

1) Asthma is common. If it doesn’t affect you it will be impacting the quality of life of someone you know, perhaps even a close family member.

2) Asthma affects the young and old. If not appreciated and managed early it can lead to irreversible changes in the lungs which produce a lifetime of poor lung functioning and breathing difficulty, impacting on daily life which by then is much harder or impossible to treat successfully.

3) Although common asthma and a laise fair attitude are widespread. Bad habits and pitfalls in asthma management are learned early and continued for years.

4) Old fashioned guidelines and mantra have given mixed messages to patients as to what to do especially by emphasizing symptom relief whilst ignoring the preventative side to therapy.

5) New asthma drugs and ways to approach asthma treatment have recently been developed which can have major impacts. We need to make sure everyone has access to better treatment.

6) Asthma treatment is generally not expensive and if managed correctly can produce life-changing results at relatively low cost meaning each $ donated can produce a more impactful result in terms of quality of life and also the number of quality years gained.

Our goal is to reduce asthma hospitalisation by 50% by 2029. I firmly believe this is achievable. We have plenty of time if we all help out.