-- Patty Loveless Wins the DRIVE4COPD “Race for the Missing Millions” by Screening Nearly 6,000 People during Celebrity Kickoff --
Ridgefield, CT, February 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Hollywood, sports and music stars brought the public along for the ride as they raced 6,000 miles in four days to find the millions of people who may be at risk for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which kills one person every four minutes. Through Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, tens of thousands of people followed the celebrities as they traveled to 14 cities to screen thousands of people for this relatively unknown top cause of death.
The result: more than 27,000 people completed the validated five-question screener available at DRIVE4COPD.COM to see if they were at risk for COPD. The screener helps people talk to their doctor about their breathing problems, which is important because most people are not diagnosed with COPD until they have already lost half of their lung function. The goal is to drive 1 million people to get screened in the first year of the campaign.
“We were thrilled with this level of engagement since COPD has been largely ignored even though it is the nation’s fourth leading cause of death,” said Chris Barrett, Senior Vice President at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the founding sponsor of the campaign. “And this is just the beginning, as the campaign will continue to build with many more activities and partnerships planned this year.”
For Grammy Award-winning country music star Patty Loveless, Tweets from her fans and the buzz about her inspiring new single Drive bolstered the number of screeners she collected to win the first leg of the DRIVE4COPD “Race for the Missing Millions.” Loveless beat out her fellow DRIVE4COPD celebrity ambassadors – Emmy-nominated actor Jim Belushi, former Pro Football great Michael Strahan, and Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner – who participated in the race in memory of relatives with COPD.
“I met hundreds of people along my route and it seems like nearly everyone knows someone with COPD,” said Loveless, who lent her voice to the cause and traveled from Daytona, FL to Chicago. “It meant a lot to me to hear their stories and share my memories of my sister who struggled for years with emphysema, a form of COPD.”
Go Daddy and NASCAR Nationwide Series™ driver Danica Patrick, who was the Grand Marshall of the “Race for the Missing Millions,” had a strong showing with more than 9,000 screeners. Now, following the celebrity four-day race, the campaign continues with local COPD screening events at NASCAR races, major sporting events and country music concerts throughout the year. The DRIVE4COPD celebrity ambassadors will also be spreading their message through public service announcements and briefings on Capitol Hill.
It is estimated that half of the 24 million people in the United States who may have COPD remain undiagnosed. The serious, progressive disease – which includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both – robs people of their ability to breathe and kills more Americans each year than breast cancer and diabetes combined.
“People often ignore symptoms, such as shortness of breath, until they have trouble doing everyday activities,” said Brian Carlin, MD, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Drexel University School of Medicine. “This campaign helps people understand if they are at risk so they can get on the road to breathing better sooner.”
The DRIVE4COPD campaign encourages the public to learn about COPD, recognize its early symptoms, complete a five-question screener at DRIVE4COPD.COM to find out if they may be at risk, and then talk to their doctor about their results. In addition to the validated risk screener, the DRIVE4COPD Web site provides information on the disease and on the importance of taking active steps to manage it with a doctor. It also includes many social media tools to get the word out.
-Newsire
