Cornwall Breathers and the Liskeard and Southeast Cornwall Breathers Group have been recognised in an important social policy document on Cornwall social and community well-being*.
In its section on Healthy Living it includes a case study featuring the Liskeard and Southeast Cornwall Breathers Group. It reports that the Group, a not-for-profit set up in 2006 by people who have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) a No Smoking Schools Project. It says that despite their own multiple health issues, over the last 15 years the Group members ‘made a remarkable impression on schools, medical professionals and the local community.’ Over 30,000 school students were reached, showing them the harms of smoking and how smoking can ruin their health.
In 2019 two grants of £2,500 from the CF Community Fund and The Live Well Fund enabled the Group to create an educational video and lesson package. Any school can download the video resource and use it as part of a PSHE lesson, with support through a Bulletin Board where users can ask questions, share experiences and receive feedback.
CCF Grants Officer, Donna Wheadon went to the premier viewing of the No Smoking School Project video. She said: ‘It was an emotional and touching visit and showed great dedication, selflessness and passion from the members …..who want to show people the long-term harm of smoking, with lived experience.’
The Cornwall Breathers website has now been established to help spread the benefits of this approach more widely, by becoming a resource and communications channel for patients, carers and health professionals.
*’Vital Signs’ is a research document designed to identify social and community priorities in Cornwall written by the Cornwall Community Foundation [CCF].
Last Updated on 23 May 2023 by admin