March 2009
Hustle Up the Hancock has raised almost $1 million for lung disease research, advocacy and educational programs. Some specific ways Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago uses that money are highlighted in this month's issue of the e-newsletter.
- Your donations help children with asthma breathe easier.
- Your donations support groundbreaking research.
- Your gifts help people living with COPD.
To receive RHAMC's monthly e-newsletter, send an email to info@lungchicago.org.
RHAMC is working on several projects to reduce the impact of childhood asthma on our community.Respiratory Health Association's Fight Asthma Now © program teaches children in Chicago Public Schools and its surrounding suburbs how to manage their asthma effectively. Last year, with your support, we delivered Fight Asthma Now classes to more than 1,300 students in grades 3-12. Using our Asthma Management program, we taught another 2,500 parents, teachers, and school personnel how to help children manage their asthma and how to respond to asthma emergencies. Our goal is to reduce emergency room visits and school absenteeism due to asthma.
We are also active at the community level in fighting asthma. In the past year, RHAMC's asthma staff and community health workers participated in projects in communities including Humboldt Park, Woodlawn, Greater Grand Crossing, Auburn Gresham, and Englewood. In these communities, we help families better understand how to manage childhood asthma and to reduce "triggers" of asthma attacks in the home.
Recognizing the effect asthma has on the youngest members of our community, we developed our Asthma Friendly Child Care project. In less than three years, we have worked with more than 400 child care and Head Start sites to educate childcare workers about the management of asthma and to help identify and correct asthma "triggers" in childcare facilities.
In the past year, RHAMC has funded lung disease research grants at University of Chicago, Northwestern University and University of Illinois - Chicago. The scientists we support are exploring the link between obesity and asthma, inhaled allergens and asthma, a potential new asthma treatment, asthma and diet and lung cancer. Past awards have gone to scientists researching COPD treatments, lung injury, and acute respiratory distress syndrome, among others.
One of the new research awards, the "Lung Cancer Promise of Tomorrow Award" is particularly exciting because we are co-funding the award with five partners who share our research priorities. Each $1 supplied by RHAMC's donors is matched by $9 in donations from other funders. That allows us to maximize our investment in research.
The award is made to researchers conducting groundbreaking work in lung cancer. The recipient of the inaugural $200,000 award is Navdeep Chandel, PhD (pictured) of Northwestern University.
"The award allows us to take a creative approach to understanding lung cancer", said Mr. Chandel.
Your gifts help people living with COPD.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, and is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. and is expected to be the third leading cause by 2020. In Illinois alone, more than 500,000 people have been diagnosed with COPD, and an estimated 500,000 are not yet diagnosed.
RHAMC, with the 100-member Illinois COPD Coalition led the development of the State Plan for Addressing COPD in Illinois. With its adoption in spring 2008, Illinois became only the second state in the nation to form a statewide COPD coalition and resulting COPD State Plan to make COPD a priority within the state.
To directly serve patients and their caregivers, we host "Cruising with COPD," an annual spring outing on Lake Michigan. More than 500 people come from as far away as Peoria and Rockford to enjoy the day. This program, which some cruisers describe as the "social event of the season for the COPD community," helps remind people that the goal with COPD is living with the disease. Oxygen is available to participants if necessary.
Every fall RHAMC sponsors a COPD educational conference providing the latest information, technology and techniques for living with COPD. Hundreds congregate to listen to speakers and attend break-out sessions with experts to learn how to live better with chronic lung disease.
Three times a year we publish our newsletter Inspiration to keep the COPD patients and caregivers informed about the latest, information and resources they need to manage their disease.
