Dr. Thomas Petty

Remember to give

July 2001
Second Wind
Lomita, California

Dear Friends,

Now that there is a commitment to the newly established Alvin Grancell/Mary Burns Chair in the Rehabilitative Sciences, it is time for us all to dig deep and get enough money to fully fund the Chair. This will be the first such Chair anywhere in North America. With funding for new research into mechanisms of shortness of breath, fatigue and reduced quality of life for people with COPD and related disorders, we will develop new therapies. All this is happening at a time when the drug industry is actually designing new drugs that can deal with the basic inflammatory and destructive causes of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In just a year or two we will have new treatment strategies, which promise to help the majority of people with COPD. Our emphasis will also shift to early identification and intervention. Already the National Lung Health Education Program (NLHEP) is being recognized as an important new health care initiative that will educate both the public and primary care physicians about new treatments for the only disease in the top 10 that is rising in this country today. All other causes are going down as a direct result of research and new medical treatments.

The research that the new Chair will support will be a critical step in how we will be able to deal with COPD in the future. Please join me in making a second or third donation at this time. I have proposed the formation of The Long Beach 500 Club. Membership for this Club is a donation of $500 or more. We have a growing number of members, some from your own doctors and friends. Give more, give less, but give what you can, so that we can continue to move forward.

I look forward to our forthcoming Rally on June 22. There we will review some exciting new developments in our understandings of what causes COPD, how it progresses, and how it can be better treated. The future is bright, but we need to all bask in the sunshine of success as we fully fund the Chair. I care about this Chair and hope you do too.

I'll see you at the Rally.

Your friend,

Thomas Petty, MD