Online ‘Personal Health’ Campaign Aims to Educate and Empower People with Lung Diseases

Mediaplanet, a content marketing company, recently launched a “Personal Health” campaign that helps to raise awareness of different forms of lung disease, from pulmonary fibrosis and cancer to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

According to a press release, the campaign — which covers other chronic diseases as well — is being advertised through USA Today and online, and is designed to inform and inspire readers to take control of their health.

Lung disease is the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., with nearly 34 million Americans having some form of chronic lung disease.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that about 100,000 people in the U.S. have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and approximately 30,000 to 40,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Worldwide, IPF affects 13 to 20 out of every 100,000 people.

Julie Halston, a Broadway theater actress, is participating in this campaign. Halston is sharing her husband’s IPF story and that of a close friend who died of the disease; she also helps to lead an annual IPF awareness and fundraising event called  Broadway Belts for PFF!

Broadway Belts raised a record $350,000 this year, and $250,000 in 2017.

For Yankees baseball player-turned-musician Bernie Williams — whose father died of IPF complications in 2001 — also supports the campaign. In addition to participating in Broadway Belts fundraisers, Williams made headlines this year for performing “Take Me Out to The Ball Game” during Boehringer Ingelheim’s signature Breathless Campaign, designed to help raise awareness among Minor League Baseball’s fans.

Williams also wrote about his efforts to support disease awareness and research, and his father, in a guest column he wrote for Pulmonary Fibrosis News.

“Lung Health” also has the support of groups that include American Lung Association (ALA), the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF), and the Lung Cancer Foundation of America.