Every ten seconds someone in the UK has a potentially life-threatening asthma attack and three people die every day. Tragically two thirds of these deaths could be prevented, whilst others still suffer with asthma so severe current treatments don't work.
This has to change. That's why Asthma UK exists. We work to stop asthma attacks and, ultimately, cure asthma by funding world leading research and scientists, campaigning for change and supporting people with asthma to reduce their risk of a potentially life threatening asthma attack.
We have a proud history of funding research and supporting people with asthma for decades, and an independent review has shown Asthma UK scientists have made breakthroughs in many different areas. Asthma outcomes did improve during the latter part of the last century and so sometimes people mistakenly believe asthma is no longer serious or a drive for improvement not necessary. In fact in recent years the number of people with asthma has risen. 1 in 11 people in the UK has asthma, including 1.1 million children, and their chance of good outcomes have plateaued and on some measures declined. Tragically, still the majority of deaths from asthma are entirely preventable. That's why our focus in our 2014-17 strategy is to reduce the risk of life threatening asthma attacks; key to this will be ending the complacency about asthma.
We also have a Research Strategy to guide the charity's investment in research for the next five years. The strategy was developed through extensive consultation amongst researchers, healthcare professionals; people affected by asthma, policymakers and relevant partner organisations. The aims of the strategy are to fund research which improves the lives of people living with asthma today, reaches towards the creation of asthma cures, increases the number of highly skilled asthma researchers in the UK, encourages and enables collaboration between scientists and funders, and supports the ongoing evaluation of our research achievements.
