A BREATH OF HOPE LUNG FOUNDATION

A Breath of Hope Lung Foundation (ABOH) works to improve the 23% five-year survival rate of lung cancer by: 1) Funding excellent lung cancer science/research and fighting for fair funding levels; 2) Creating a path to earlier detection by providing public education and awareness nationwide about the causes, symptoms and screening for lung cancer; and 3) Improving the journey and health outcomes by offering support services and education to lung cancer patients and their families during treatment and/or after losing loved ones. Our patient ed resource, YouandLungCancer.com, is now a top resource in the world.

To address the disparities among ethnic groups hurt by lung cancer, ABOH employs an Outreach Coordinator to focus on low income communities in Minnesota. This staff reaches out to organizations, civic groups, churches, schools and individuals to look for opportunities to partner, educate about lung cancer, screening and radon testing, and provide services where needed and desired. This staff also looks for opportunities to support patients with access to patient support groups that meet in our office or in the communities where interested patients and family members live.

A Breath of Hope Lung Foundation focuses its efforts on educating low income communities and people of color where lung cancer incidence and mortality is highest.

ABOH created partnerships with national organizations in the lung cancer space to create a thought leader group to discuss strategies for community outreach, education and primary care physician engagement toward our shared goal of improving Minnesota's lung screening numbers. This group is composed of physicians, nurses and screening clinic leaders at all of Minnesota's healthcare organizations. These efforts led to the first Minnesota statewide lung screening campaign in 2023.

ABOH developed a detailed strategic plan that includes outreach and education in low income areas of the country. The primary focus of this plan is to elevate each of our three programs to reach more people for improved understanding of lung cancer, increased screening and radon testing, and an overall improved lung cancer survival rate.

ABOH will measure its impact in various ways, starting with participation and engagement in the educational activities hosted in each community, as well as program measurement for all direct services provided to patients and family members.

ABOH has created an impressive impact with a small tight team of staff that add up to 6.5 FTEs. With good training and focused work strategies, this team has reached more than 1,000,000 people annually with important education, has invested more than 2,500,000 in research, and is providing support and education to more than 700 patients and families each year.

ABOH, with its healthcare system partners, hosted the first-ever Minnesota Lung cancer Screening campaign in the summer of 2023. In the first two weeks, more than 4500 people visited the host website, MNScreens.org. Through various media channels and outreach, we reached 6 million Minnesotans with important messages about lung cancer and about screening.

Overall, we reached more than 19,000,000 with marketing aimed at educating Americans about lung cancer for earlier detection. 74% of lung cancer cases are found in stage 3 or 4 when survival is challenging.

The Animated Guide to Lung Cancer, found at youandlungcancer.com, has had 700,000 visits from 130 countries in its first six years (launched late 2017). Most self-identify as patients and caregivers, with the second leading user group being physicians. 93% of patient visitors said they learned something new and will talk with their doctors (toward our goal of shared decision-making and improved health outcomes).

Most of the research projects we so carefully vet before funding have now been published and our young investigators are growing in their careers, finding secondary funding to support ongoing research, and gaining confidence in their ability to impact lung cancer survival.

Radon is the number two cause of lung cancer and is found in 2 of 5 Minnesota homes - three times the national average for radon. With strategic partnerships (MN Dept. of health and local businesses), we have begun outreach and education about lung cancer and radon in out-state and urban communities with high levels of poverty and radon.