The Asthma Podcast - Transcript January 2010

Luke: Welcome to the Asthma Podcast. Every month we’ll bring you news, research updates and ways you can support us. This month, were joined by our Chief Executive who looks forward to an exciting and challenging year for Asthma UK. And we speak to a member of our youth forum about how young people can get involved with the charity. Also, find out how you could create a lasting memories fund if you’ve lost a loved one to asthma.

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Luke: Asthma UK’s Youth Forum plays an important role in influencing the charity’s work and helping us meet the needs of young people with asthma. We’re joined by Charlotte, who’s been a Youth Forum member for the past year, can you tell us a bit more about the Youth Forum and the kind of things that you do?

Charlotte: Well it’s basically a group of young people who help raise awareness of asthma and make a difference to those with it. Currently we have 16 members, both males and females. We take part in competitions to raise awareness of asthma, recently we held a Listen Up! Competition and the Youth Forum judged the competition in the House of Commons. We also take part in conferences and for World Asthma Day we went along to the House of Commons for that, so yeah it’s really good.

Luke: Personally, what have you got out of being a member of the Youth Forum? How has it helped you?

Charlotte: Well it’s good because you get to meet loads of new people, you know, different severities of asthma. Definitely become more confident, feel like you’re putting something into the community and helping.

Luke: And how did you get involved with Asthma UK?

Charlotte: Well it was actually my mum, who saw an advertisement in the Magazine. And she said, why don’t you try it, so I went along to the first meeting, really enjoyed it and went from there!

Luke: And if anybody was thinking of joining the Youth Forum, what would you say to them?

Charlotte: I would say it is a great experience, it’s an opportunity to discuss your asthma and yeah it’s a great opportunity to meet other young people as well so it’s really good.

Luke: If anyone listening to this would like to join the Youth Forum, what’s the best way for them to go about it?

Charlotte: Well you can get involved by going onto the website: asthma.org.uk

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Luke: For people who have lost a loved one to asthma, a Lasting Memories fund could be a positive way of celebrating that person’s life. We’re joined by Andre Shine from our Fundraising Team. Can you tell us a bit more about the Lasting Memories fund?

Andre: The Lasting Memories fund offers friends and families the opportunity to celebrate the life of someone special, whilst also making a positive difference to the lives of children and adults affected by asthma. So a fund can turn a very negative situation into a more positive one through helping to change the future and preventing others from going through exactly the same thing.

I think, fundamentally, the website which we set up in the summer of 2009, allows friends and family from all around the world to share messages, perhaps fond memories even post poems up to the site so they can all take a look in their own time. They can also post photographs onto the site as well. In addition they can also light candles in memory to their tribute. People can also set up sponsorship funds which tie into the main tribute and through that they can perhaps organise a collection for a birthday or a wedding. People can also run their own events and set it up as a support fund.

Luke: And what are the mechanics of it? How does it work? Is it simple to set up?

Andre: It’s extremely simple. It’s really important that we kept it as simple as possible so as wider number of people can use it.

Luke: So how can people find out more about the Lasting Memories fund?

Andre: Well people can go onto the Asthma UK website, there’s a number of pages there that provide guidance on how to use the Lasting Memories website. There are also links through our tribute funds site. If people would like to have direct support, they’re very welcome to get in contact with Robbie and his number is 0800 121 62 55. That’s a free phone number and Robbie is able to help you either setting up your fund or perhaps give you some ideas on fundraising or we have a dedicated email address which is lastingmemories@asthma.org.uk

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Luke: 2010 looks set to be an exciting year for Asthma UK. We’re joined by our Chief Executive Neil Churchill, can you give us an overview of what key things Asthma UK is hoping to achieve this year?

Neil: We’re hoping to achieve in 2010 is to really make a difference in the way that the NHS supports people with asthma. As we finished 2009 we held a number of consultation events with patients across England about how the NHS needed to improve to be as good as it can be. The focus on 2010 is to make that vision for change a reality. I think we should bring about a zero tolerance attitude towards asthma deaths. We all know that many hospital admissions can be prevented, some asthma deaths can be prevented – we need to make sure that 2010 is the year that takes a significant strive forward in bringing those things into reality.

In addition, in 2010 we’re going to see the fruits an exercise we did to look at the impact that we’ve had in our scientific research over the past 10 years. We commissioned a team of experts from Brunel University to look at what difference our scientific research has made in 2010 and we’ll get a really good sense of what the Asthma UK Medical Research Council Centre for Asthma has achieved, what a lot of our research funding has achieved, and where the outstanding questions lie. And that will enable us to develop a new research strategy for the next five years about what are the most promising areas for asthma research and how can Asthma UK make them into a reality. So two significant, one improving the quality of NHS services, building on the consultation that we finished in the autumn of 2009 and two, looking at what we have achieved in scientific research and using that to determine research priorities for the future.

Luke: Obviously we are all aware of the difficult economic climate at the moment. How do you think this will affect our work and what are the challenges do you see facing Asthma UK this year?

Neil: Economically, these are challenging times. They will continue to be challenging times I think throughout 2010. We’re really grateful to the support of loyal donors who stuck with us over the last 18 months, you’ve enabled us to keep our vital work going and we need to build on that support and encourage new people to support us over the next period too. We have some significant challenges ahead, I think we’re all clear that we need to make sure that everyone understands that asthma can be serious and I’ve heard this from bereaved parents, I’ve heard this from people with severe asthma. It’s generally one of the most consistent messages I get when I talk to patients, that we need to make sure that everyone in the NHS, everyone with asthma, recognises the need to take asthma seriously. We’re also likely to, we’re going to have a general election in Westminster, in, probably May. It’s going to be a significant election, our job really is to make sure care for people with asthma is as good as it can be. We need to look hard at what the reality of policies from the political parties will mean for the NHS on the ground and for patients.

Luke: Throughout 2009, people have been able to keep up with you through the Asthma Blog. What type of things can people expect to hear from you in the coming year?

Neil: I’ve really enjoyed writing the blog and the main reason for that is I’ve really enjoyed the dialogue that I’ve been able to have with people with asthma and carers of people with asthma and it does make a difference. If you look back at the subjects that we’ve covered in the blog over the last year, a number of them have affected what we’ve done. Priorities for 2010, from my perspective, are going to be similar in that we’re looking to hear about what people’s experiences are particularly experiences of healthcare and what it means but also their experiences of the schools system, of the workplace. I’m very keen to hear what people have got to say to us and I’m very keen to test out some of our thinking with some people via the blog.