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Research Gives Hope

When Lea was in her early 20s, she realised her dad was struggling and couldn’t do the things he used to.

He just couldn’t catch his breath.

He was a foreman, but even that became difficult and gradually he had to stop working. Eventually, he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Lea’s dad was only 50 and from then on, his breathlessness got worse, he was in and out of hospital and eventually needed oxygen to breathe. Then one day he died suddenly of a heart attack aged 55.

“This was a total shock to me and my family because he was so young and because he died of heart failure.”

37 years later, Lea is now participating in a clinical trial, to test whether beta-blockers can reduce the chances of a stroke or heart attack for people who have COPD.

Lea was diagnosed with COPD just five years ago at the age of 59 after suffering from bronchitis for most of her life.

“Not only has it been challenging adapting to being breathless every day but it’s pretty scary knowing that I have a greater risk of heart disease because of COPD.”

Lea finds this time of year particularly difficult without her dad.

“Perhaps if more funding was invested into lung disease research he would still be here today.”

“My hope is that the results from clinical trials like this will be the magic bullet that will fix everything. And if it doesn’t, then that’s OK because researchers learn from research. There’s constant progress that will potentially save lives for future generations.”

Let’s keep more families together through breakthrough research. What better gift could you give this Christmas?