Andy Donovan:
Originally created in 1900 to take care of patients who were suffering from tuberculosis. We’ve since grown over the past century and a half, to cover other lung health issues.

Chris Haromy:
The Lung Association provides programs for people who have lung disorders, such as asthma and COPD. We also provide programs to help prevent lung diseases, such as helping people quit smoking, awareness about radon.

Andy Donovan:
So quite simply put, the Lung Association of Ontario helps all Canadians breathe.

Chris Haromy:
I’ve had asthma my whole life. In fact, when I was young, there weren’t too many medications available. I definitely have limitations in what I can do.

To monitor your asthma, sometimes you have to miss out on some of the sports, which you don’t have to do nowadays. We have Olympic athletes and NHR athletes full of asthma who, of course, perform at a very high level.

Andy Donovan:
Some of the things that we try to offer to our patients, are both help and hope; help being patient support and hope being funding vital research.

Chris Haromy:
If asthma is not managed, well, first of all, you have a reduced quality of life, so you won’t be able to do as much as the other people do. There is a risk of severe exacerbations, flare-ups from asthma, about a hundred people in Ontario dying every year from asthma. So it’s not a huge number, but we’d like to see that down to zero.

Andy Donovan:
We have certified respirology educators that are available to our patients in their support systems and healthcare providers.

Chris Haromy:
We have a tremendous number of programs, but there is always a need for more. The benefits for people [unintelligible 00:01:30] when they start exercising, are tremendous, and there aren’t nearly enough programs for people.

The more money we bring in, the more programs we can provide for people.

Andy Donovan:
We became involved with Federated Health Charities back in the eighties. They’re extremely important to us, because they are a great channel for us to communicate our message. It also is an incredible resource for us, at the end of the day, for our revenue streams.

It’s an incredible partner to the association in everything that we do.

Chris Haromy:
It’s important to continue our partnership with Federated Health Charities, because the money that it provides, is very important for people in Ontario. We’re able to provide more services for them, upgrade our resources, provide better web-based resources, provide counselling services, and even open up new programs.

Andy Donovan:
Being able to communicate with colleagues within the charitable sector is immeasurable, because then we can take a look at other ways to collaborate. We all work together to champion the cause of Federated Health Charities and OPS, but also, it offers us another avenue to continue the dialogue amongst ourselves.

Chris Haromy:
People are benefitting from our services on a daily basis.

Andy Donovan:
One in five Canadians are affected by lung disease, and five in five Canadians need to breathe. If you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.

Chris Haromy:
Providing funding for the programs that help these people, is extremely important. The more money we bring in, the better service we can provide, and also, the better their quality of life will be.