A World Without Asthma - Longfonds highlights 2021

Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease in the Netherlands. Fifty children per day are diagnosed with it. However, not everyone is aware of how much this impacts their lives. That's why we brought together the best researchers from around the world to rapidly try and answer the question: how can asthma be prevented? At the same time, Lung Foundation Netherlands (Longfonds) is doing everything in its power to continue funding this research, and to show why asthma prevention is so important.

Campaign for the most common chronic childhood disease

In the spring of 2021, Longfonds set up a national media campaign to emphasise the seriousness of this underestimated lung disease. The asthma prevention research by LONGFONDS | Accelerate was central to this operation and we were able to reach millions of people. Children with asthma shared their stories on social media, and consortium leader Hermelijn Smits played a major role in the campaign.

Hermelijn was interviewed by the national newspaper TROUW among others. Her message, that asthma can be prevented by training the immune system, reached more than 400,000 readers. Hermelijn also told more than six hundred people and business partners about LONGFONDS | Accelerate and training your immune system.

Curious? Watch Hermelijn's fascinating webinar here (English subtitles will follow, you can also activate this on YouTube via settings).

Anything for a cure

Government funding for scientific research is three times lower in the Netherlands than in Germany and Finland, for example. That is why Longfonds' fundraising work is crucial in curing lung diseases. Surrounding World Asthma Day, we got tens of thousands of donors involved in the research of our consortium partner Prof. dr. Bart Lambrecht. Moreover, more than 23,000 volunteers raised 1.4 million Euros during our national fundraising week for LONGFONDS | Accelerate.

Thanks to all this hard work, the efforts of the researchers as well as all of our supporters, we are now one step closer to our common goal of 'preventing asthma'.