What is it like when the symptoms of people living with COPD get much worse and what language do they use to describe this? This is what we aimed to understand in our study in which we interviewed 40 people from around England. Generally clinicians say that someone is having an exacerbation if their symptoms …
Understanding people’s experiences of exacerbations Read More »
This wonderful set of booklets popped through my letterbox the other day and immediately caught my attention! They were beautifully presented and had much in them to appeal to the senses. Sometimes as a researcher it is easy to get caught up in thinking rather than paying attention to the senses and yet everyone’s daily …
Reflecting on the ‘Sensing Spaces of Healthcare’ booklets Read More »
There are times when daily life feels like a huge effort for all of us, and for all the people living with breathlessness every single day life brings many challenges and it can certainly be a struggle! We can all do with a bit of encouragement at times can’t we? Keep going, you can do …
Many of us find asking for helping difficult and yet most of us like to be able to help others! Why is there this contradiction? Maybe because for a lot of us our pride gets in the way. June made her image for the exhibition to encourage others to feel that it’s ok to ask …
Here’s what Anna Bean and Rob Mackay had to say about their experience of co-creating the Bringing Breathlessness into View exhibition. Anna Bean: I’ve found it really positive being an artist on this project. I’ve really enjoyed working on a project connected to the university, because of the ongoing nature of it and because it …
What do artists think about working on our exhibition? Read More »
Where are we going? What are our aims? Are we getting there? This exhibition was designed to give insight into what it is like living with breathlessness, with the use of strong images and personal narratives. In the video below I describe how we aim to bring breathlessness out into the open and help people …
Although breathlessness causes people lots of difficulties there are many ways of coping with it! The collage shown above was made by Eric who wanted to show what was important to him in coping with breathlessness: exercising, getting support from others and finding helpful information. It’s a hopeful image with the sun coming out from …
When you live with chronic breathlessness there are lots of difficulties. Climbing the stairs can make you feel scared. Hedges can seem to tower above you and be overwhelming. You may feel on the sidelines, watching others doing things you wish you could do. Maybe you feel you might collapse if you can’t find somewhere …
It’s over a year since we opened our exhibition and I would like to remember one of our participants who led a very full life-Else. She designed this beautifully cheery picture to show the many ways she was making the most of life and to encourage others to do so too. Else used an array …
How can the arts and health go together? Listen to our interview with Joe Hakim on BBC Radio Humberside to hear how we are trying to bring breathlessness into view using the arts. In the interview Janice says the exhibition makes breathlessness become more real and that she hopes people understand how life changing breathlessness …
