In 2025 I will take on three gruelling events to raise money for Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis, the main UK charity supporting pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease in which scars are formed in the lung tissues. It is a devastating and debilitating condition characterized by increasing breathlessness, disability and death. The condition is now affecting 70,000 people at any point in time in the UK alone.

Three events will test me to the maximum both physically and mentally in raising support and much needed donations for this worthy cause.

(1) a 100km 'ultra run' around the mountainous lake district (June);

(2) a 'Frog Graham' round, a 'swim/hike' circular route of the lake district which to complete will require 60km of mountain running and 5 lake swims. (June);

(3) Triathlon du Mont Blanc, a custom and self supported Ironman distance triathlon centered around Europe's Mont Blanc range (September).

The Condition & APF's work

PF describes a range of progressive lung diseases that scar the lungs making them stiffer and smaller, leading to low oxygen levels and reduced lung capacity resulting in breathlessness. The most common form of the disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, has a life expectancy after diagnosis of 3-4 years. There is no known cure.

Donations toward APF will provide much needed support to patients and their families:

- PF is a life limiting condition. As breathlessness increases, ordinary daily tasks – washing, dressing, walking – can become exhausting, which impacts increasingly on the whole family and especially carers, for which caring becomes a full time role. On top of a new world of constant medical appointments, diagnoisis and living with the condition on a day to day basis is confusing, frightening and devestating. APF supports patients and their carers during this time and through bereavment.

- APF is a small national charity dealing with a large problem. Over 70,000 people in the UK are affected by PF at any point in time, diagnoisis is increasing rapidly at 2-3% annually. Respiratory research funding accounts for 2% of healthcare investment despite respiratory conditions accounting for 30% of deaths. It is commonly up to small, under resourced charities such as APF to fill in the gaps of a national health service.

- Many health care professionals have limited understanding of PF and how to correctly diagnose it. Symptoms are easily confused with other respiratory conditions (35% of patients are initially mis-diagnosed) and with lengthy hospital waiting times it commonly takes a year to get an accurate diagnosis (fewer than 50% of IPF patients are diagnosed within 6 months of a GP visit; for 20% of patients it takes over 2 years). APF provides education, resources and support that is so often lacking at a national level.

- Once diagnosed there are long wait times for treatments, again often due to lack of awareness by healthcare professionals and no clear nation wide treatment pathway. This results in further uncertainty, anxiety and poorer outcomes for patients and families during this critical time.

It is 10 years since I lost my dad to the condition. Much has improved during that time and I have now seen first hand the part that this charity has played in improving the lives of those affected.