Deadly lung disease

SIR – I was saddened to read of the death of the popular television presenter Keith Chegwin (Obituaries, December 12) from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which is a gradual and irreversible scarring of the lungs with no known cure.

As a fellow sufferer, I find it frustrating that IPF receives little or no attention and poor funding in comparison to cancer, though it affects in the region of 35,000 people in Britain alone. Leukaemia, for example, receives 50 times more funding and research than IPF and yet more people die from IPF in any given year than from leukaemia. Sufferers included Marlon Brando, Evel Knievel and the author Peter Benchley.

Idiopathic signifies “nonattributable”, which means that doctors and scientists have not yet discovered the actual origin of the disease: what causes it, who gets it and why. Ambient urban air pollution levels do not help and may even be a cause. So far, the only “explanation” for this condition is that it is simply the luck of the draw.

Shortness of breath and dry coughing are just two symptoms. It is advisable to keep a close eye on such potential warning signs and, if they persist, to see your GP. Jeff Snowden

Bardsey, West Yorkshire