SPECIALIST nurses at Warrington Hospital have urged residents to look out for symptoms of a lung condition which remains undiagnosed in two million people in the UK.

Three million people in the UK suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but only 900,000 have been diagnosed as symptoms are often dismissed as a ‘smoker’s cough’.

COPD is a term used to describe a group of conditions that cause long-term damage to the airways and is the fifth biggest killer in the UK, causing 3,500 deaths every year in the North West alone.

Costing the NHS £800m a year, COPD causes frequent chest infections and causes a high level of anxiety and depression in sufferers.

Carol White, a specialist respiratory nurse at Warrington Hospital, said: “COPD is the term for obstructive lung diseases where you’ve got narrowing of the airway and 85 per cent of the time it’s caused by smoking.

“There are about 3 million people in the UK with COPD but only about one million have been diagnosed – there are about two million people who don’t know they’re walking around with COPD.

“It kind of creeps on them over a few years before they actually notice and they start to adapt – they blame it on smoking or not being as fit as they used to be# “They don’t realise they’ve actually got COPD and that’s why it goes undiagnosed.

“When they’re unwell it’s quite scary – they can feel like they’re going to die because they’re so breathless, because they’re so ill.

“They blame themselves which is really sad because they say it’s their own fault but that was what it was like at the time – people were actively encouraged to smoke, it was one of those things that were readily accepted.”

Wednesday November 18 marks World COPD Day with a focus on the It’s Not Too Late Campaign, which highlights the actions people can take to improve their respiratory health before or after diagnosis.

Commonly affecting smokers or former smokers above the age of 35, key symptoms to look out for include a chronic cough, breathlessness and frequent winter bronchitis.

The condition is treatable and not curable, but early diagnosis is crucial.

Carol said: “People know about heart disease but COPD seems to be increasing if anything so it’s just to raise that profile.

“If people can identify they’re at risk we can get them the right treatment or at least get them looked at to make sure what they’ve got in place is what’s needed for them.

“It’s not just about patients, it’s also about relatives because sometimes they might not recognise that they fit in that criteria – they just think this is normal.

“If we raise the profile of it somebody might recognise those symptoms and say that could be my mum or that could be my dad – it might prompt them to say go and get a check-up.”

Fellow specialist respiratory nurse Nicola Cross added: “It’s not just about identifying people who aren’t diagnosed, it’s about people who are diagnosed to know that we’re here to help them.

“We’re a good team, we don’t only see patients in hospital, we see patients the in the community so we want them to know we’re here for them and how they can contact us.”

The respiratory team from Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will be available tomorrow, Wednesday, at the front entrance of Warrington Hospital to provide information, advice and support on COPD.