British actors Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast, The Sweeny) and Amanda Redman (Sexy Beast, New Tricks) have come together in a video appeal to show their support for the British Lung Foundation’s (BLF) campaign to raise awareness of the lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), for World IPF Week (28 September – 05 October 2014).
The campaign is also supported by West Ham United Football Club, who Ray supports, and which is connected to the song ’I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’.
IPF, which causes a progressive scarring of the lungs, has been on the rise in the UK for decades, and now kills around 5,000 people a year – on a par with conditions such as leukaemia. However, there is no known cause or cure. As a result, the disease acts with often-devastating speed: barely half of people diagnosed with IPF are still alive three years later, and just one in five will survive five years.
World IPF Week is an opportunity to help raise awareness for this little-known disease and to campaign for more research and better treatment and support for the patients and their families.
For further information about IPF, please visit the BLF website.
