Liskeard and Southeast Cornwall Breathers Group is a not-for-profit group set up in 2006 by people who have COPD and completed the NHS pulmonary rehabilitation course. The group was set up to welcome people with COPD and other long-term conditions, and offer time to get together to share experiences, speak with health professionals, find out about the latest medical treatment options, and take part in gentle exercise.
In 2019, Cornwall Breather’s received two grants of £2,500 from the Cornwall Community Foundation Community FundA sum of money made available for grant making, often with specific criteria/conditions. and The Live Well Fund towards their No Smoking Schools ProjectA piece of work that delivers an output. which has been running for over 10 years. Despite their own multiple health issues, members have made a remarkable impression on schools, medical professionals, and the local community suffering from COPD for the last 15 years. Their No Smoking Schools Project has reached over 30,000 school students, showing them the harms of smoking and from their own personal experiences how smoking can ruin your health.
The funding support from both funds recently enabled Cornwall Breather’s to create an educational video as part of their No Smoking Schools Project and combine a lesson package, so that any school can download the lesson plan and use it as a 1 hour PSHE lesson, complete with an online Q&A session.
CCF Grants officer, Donna went to the premiere 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 of Cornwall Breather’s, who want to show people the long-term harm of smoking, with lived experience”
With Cornwall Breather’s members living with their own long-term health issues, the newly created educational video and lesson package, which would usually be presented in person, has enabled members to continue being advocates for the campaign whilst concentrating on their own health. It has also helped to reach more schools and has given those schools the tools and flexibility of adding the No Smoking Schools Project into their curriculum. Any school can download the video and lesson packages from the Cornwall Breather’s website, here.
