Shoppers take advantage of healthy lung checks at town shopping centre

Shoppers visiting Tower Ramparts Shopping Centre have had the opportunity to take advantage of a free health check to determine if their lungs are fit and healthy thanks to a joint initiative from Live Well Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital.

Nearly 100 shoppers took part in the event, which was held in celebration of World Spirometry Day, an international campaign designed to raise awareness of the importance of healthy lungs. Each shopper was invited to have a free lung function check (also known as spirometry tests) administered by a team of consultants and specialist nurses fromIpswichHospital.

The simple test checks an individual’s lung capacity and also detects the early symptoms of lung-related diseases such as asthma, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), an illness which is often caused by long-term smoking.

Jabeen Mughal from Felixstowe Road was one of the many shoppers who stopped to have a lung test. She said: “I was passing by when I was asked if I would like to have a free test. I think it’s a great thing to do as I have suffered from asthma for over ten years, so it was a good chance to see how my lungs are doing. I think it was a great idea as it was a way of taking these tests to the local community. I would definitely recommend anyone to take advantage of these free health checks.”

Her sentiments were echoed by Jane Blowers, a committee member for Breathe Easy, a local support group for people affected by lung conditions. Speaking of the event she said: “I think that many people are unaware of how to take care of their lung health. I had suffered from COPD for a long time before I was diagnosed, so any initiative which helps earlier diagnosis of lung issues is a great idea.”

Alongside the lung checks, shoppers also had the opportunity to speak to trained community health coaches from Live Well Suffolk who were on hand to provide additional advice and guidance on how to look after your lungs. Their trained stop smoking advisors were available to discuss their range of free stop smoking sessions alongside their range of physical activity taster sessions.

Speaking of the health checks, Tim Roberts, Director of Live Well Suffolk said: “This was a unique opportunity for members of the public to come along and learn more about how to look after their lungs. We were pleased to have the opportunity to speak to a significant number of smokers and former smokers to check how healthy their lungs were as cigarettes are one of the biggest causes of lung disease.”

For more information about Live Well Suffolk’s range of services, see www.livewellsuffolk.org.uk. To learn more about World Spirometry Day, see www.wsd2012.european-lung-foundation.org.