World COPD Day
Every year, the European COPD Coalition marks World COPD Day.
14 November 2012
World COPD Day’s general theme is “it’s not too late”.
Yes, it is still time to pay a visit to your doctor to speak about this chronic cough you have had for a while and to ask your healthcare professional for a spirometry test, a simple way to measure you breathing capacity.
No further time to waste on your decision to quit smoking; get help and support by phoning your national (free) help line. You should also maintain a good level of physical activity and make sure you have healthy meals.
There is still time to get treated to alleviate your symptoms and keep you out of hospital.
ECC is saying to EU politicians today that it is not too late to take political actions and support their constituents who have COPD or who are likely to have it. And we are telling them in the newspaper they read the most, the European Voice, with the visual in this article.
If you want to join us and support the fight against COPD, please contact us.
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16 November 2011.
ECC marked the day with an awareness raising visual campaign, targetted at EU decision makers based in Brussels. 
It consisted of 4 x 4 posters positioned at the main entrances/exits of the metro station Schuman, which serves the headquarters of the European Commission and of the Council, and of train station Luxembourg, which serves the European Parliament. The aim was to draw readers attention using humour and a candid question “COPD is….?”. An additional poster was located at the Maelbeek metro station. The posters were in the metro for a period of two weeks.
COPD is a rather unknown disease and those most at risk often have never heard of it. ECC wishes that as many people as possible know about the disease, its impact on patients and their carers’ lives and the economic burden of the disease – so that redressing actions are adopted and put in place.
We call on the EU legislators to put COPD on the radar and make COPD a political priority. The EU must adopt a comprehensive and integrated approach to address COPD and its related issues, t in order to improve the quality of life of patients, decrease the social and economic burden of the disease and stop the COPD epidemic. ECC sent the following postion statement to all Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and key European Commission decision makers on the occasion of World COPD Day.
Pictures taken in the metro are available here.
Position Statement ECC 10Nov11
World COPD Day is an annual awareness-raising event organized and sponsored by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). For more information please visit GOLD’s website. Participate to the national or local activities that are taking place in your country – you will find under the GOLD, the Global Initiative for COPD website a list of events per country.