Lung disease brings misery and affects the quality of life of all who are affected by it. But a pioneering scheme to improve the fitness and confidence of people suffering from respiratory illness has been hailed a success by those who have taken part. BEN FITZGERALD reports.

An 18-month pilot outreach scheme targeting respiratory illness in Swindon was launched in September on the back of a £270,000 funding package.

People suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) an umbrella term for a variety of lung problems including bronchitis, emphysema and asthma were asked to take part.

Overseeing the COPD Outreach team is respiratory nurse specialist, Alison Sarjeant, who runs the courses at the Haydon Wick centre.

She said: "Constructive pulmonary disease affects all aspects of life for the sufferers.

"What we are aiming to do is to give them the strategies to help them to cope with their illness better.

"In the long term, we hope to prevent hospital admissions and reduce the number of GP consultations."

Under the programme, sufferers attend an eight- week course, where they follow an exercise routine specifically tailored to raise the fitness levels of those taking part to their maximum potential.

Mrs Sarjeant said: "The problem we find is that people who do have this kind of respiratory problem will often not want to push themselves and will avoid activities that leave them short of breath.

"It becomes a vicious circle because as people limit their activity, they become less fit. What we try to do is to reverse that process and give people the confidence to know how far they can push themselves."

The rehabilitation programme is run by a three-strong team of respiratory nurses, backed by an occupational therapist.

It consists of 16 sessions, each lasting two hours, over an eight-week period and is based at community centres around Swindon.

Each session consists of up to an hour of supervised exercise and then an educational session covering topics such as breathing control, nutrition, relaxation and energy conservation.

Patients on the scheme are aged from 50 to 80 and have been referred by their chest consultants as likely to benefit from the exercise.

They are involved in setting their own goals, such as being able to walk up the stairs without stopping.

And their progress is also gauged in a series of standardised tests.

Alison said: "We have seen a real improvement in most of the people who have taken part. They feel less breathless and are able to cope with everyday tasks with more ease, and some of them have even been able to double the distance they can walk.

"Essentially people get out of the programme what they are willing to put in. We encourage people to continue with the exercises after they leave the course."

She explained that a bid for further money will be submitted to the Government at the end of the 18-month pilot period to continue to fund the scheme in the future.

She added: "We are not the first in the country to do this, but are fairly rare.

"The benefit of pulmonary rehabilitation has had increasing support within the medical profession over the past five years. Previously there was very little on offer to these patients."

FACTS and FIGURES

Respiratory disease has been brought to the forefront of the news with the recent death of Four Weddings and a Funeral Charlotte Coleman, 33, who died of a severe asthma attack last month.

Sufferers of lung disease are more likely to die in Britain than almost any other country in Europe.

Respiratory disease now kills one in four Britons more than coronary heart disease or non-respiratory cancer.

And the death rates are twice the EU average, according to a recent report by the British Thoracic Society in a report called The Burden of Lung Disease.

Cases of asthma have increased by 114 per cent among men and by 165 per cent among women in the last two decades.

Lung diseases are also the most common long-term illness among children and the most common cause of emergency admission to hospital.

The problem costs the NHS more than any other disease, £2.5 billion a year.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), includes both chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

It is one of the commonest respiratory conditions of adults in the developed world.

In this country, it is estimated that 18 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women aged between 40 and 68 suffer from COPD.

Respiratory conditions are also the third commonest cause of chronic sickness in working people aged between 45-64 years.