Anyone with asthma or even any long term condition wants a cure to be found for their condition. A cure would mean so much, less medication, no hospital appointments, less time miss off work, ability to get travel insurance, do the work you want, play the sport you want, sleep a full night, not feel isolated, be independent, no hospital admissions, able to not live in fear, have no fear of dying or friends dying, being able to have a life again.
However, as anyone with a complex long term condition knows a cure is not just around the corner. In my lifetime there has been one asthma specific new drug and another which can be used for asthma and allergies. That is 2 medications in 29 years. On average it takes 17 years just now to produce a new medication to treat asthma.
Yesterday I was at the Cross Party Group meeting for Asthma with Asthma UK at the Scottish Parliament which was a great meeting. It was focusing on the need for more research into asthma. It has been chronically underfunded for years and years. However after the NRAD report into asthma deaths there have been some fantastic opportunities for Asthma Research. The Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research was launched, Asthma UK is involved in the European Asthma Research and Innovation Partnership (EARIP) and asthma has become a condition which the FARR Institute is going to use as a blueprint for the way in which long term conditions are diagnosed, monitored and treated.
It is fantastic that there are some world leading researchers wanting to make a difference to lives of people with asthma. One thing I did notice yesterday was the focus on a cure which was talked about by one speaker. I would love for there to be a cure and for a reason to be found of why asthma is so complex and difficult to treat in some people. The more pressing thing is to find a better way to manage asthma. By managing asthma better the quality of many asthmatics life is greatly improved.
This is what I love about AUKCAR. I may be biased but they recognise the immediate need for asthmatics rather than focusing on discovering a cure. The need for better management, reducing hospital admissions due to asthma and the most important reducing asthma deaths.
By being part of the CPG and AUKCAR I can help make a difference. It may be small but small is better than nothing!
ANONYMOUS-ASTHMA 