Sad

I just wanted to take up a little bit of cyberspace to honor the passing of two people who touched my life in one way or another, and to extend my condolences to the families they left behind.
One of them was a friend and fellow lung blogger , the other was the loved one of a dear friend.

First, to my friend John Kirty who founded some of the UKs premier COPD websites………. “ Breathless with COPD .” John passed away a few weeks ago from the disease he knew would eventually kill him….COPD !
I never met John in person , but we corresponded with each other on a regular basis and became quite good friends. We shared a lot of our experiences in dealing with lung disease, and I think I even wrote a personal article about asthma for his website. He wanted to make sure that he had every aspect of lung disease was covered , and he preferred that people who contributed to his website, wrote from personal experience.
We was very passionate in his crusade to get the word out about COPD in the UK , and the importance of educating the public about this disease. He accomplished amazing things and helped countless others deal with their own disease before his finally took him. I’ll miss John, he had a great spirit.

Second, to my best friend Brandon, who’s dear Grandmother passed away just a couple of days ago from the very same disease. I never met her in person either, but her passing effects me as well, because she was an important part of Brandons life, and Brandon is like a brother to me.

Though they were quite a bit older than I am, I can still relate to a lot of what they probably dealt with on a daily basis. Unlike other, more scary sounding diseases, COPD/Emphysema/Chronic Asthma are insidious diseases that take their sweet time killing you.

We can stomp out this mostly preventable disease by getting rid of the things that cause is it in the first place…..Cigarettes, Air pollution and Ignorance.