Breathing through a straw while exercising may sound odd but that is what a Cape Town physiotherapist – who is looking after Port Elizabeth’s next double lung transplant candidate – wants people to do as a social media challenge.
Wednesday is World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Day – the condition Port Elizabeth resident Peter Moore developed after a freak accident 20 years ago.
To create awareness of both the severity of the disease and the solution – a lung transplant – Marchelle Lake is challenging South Africans to exercise while breathing through a straw, post a picture of themselves and describe the experience using the hashtag #breatheeasychallenge.
Lake also looked after Uitenhage resident Vanessa Neveling, 25, who died after complications due to a double lung transplant.
Her death has inspired scores of followers on social media to sign up as organ donors.
Lake is a physiotherapist with special interest in the rehabilitation of people with lung disease.
“I have been working with lung transplant patients this year and I have always been working with patients with respiratory problems.
“When you work with a transplant patient you see them at their sickest – when they are air-hungry and gasping.
“When you start the rehab with them you see how difficult it is for them.
“You can see they are struggling, but you really don’t know.
“Respiratory problems are silent diseases.
“To the uninformed, sufferers might just look unfit.
“If you breathe through a straw while exercising, you will experience what it feels like to these patients,” she said.
Lake explained that breathing through a straw replicated the narrowing of the airways.
“When I did it, I ended up in tears – I was thinking about Vanessa and what she went through.
“Everything they do from brushing their teeth to walking to the kitchen – they have to think about their breathing.
“They have to plan ahead. They have to stop after every exertion.
“I think if you are really invested in the care of patients with lung disease you won’t understand it fully until you feel it.”
Lake said the challenge was aimed at getting family members and nursing staff more aware of the difficulties.
“My big goal is to create awareness of organ donation and really looking after your lungs,” she said.
“One patient always said a donor ‘recycles’ the good parts of themselves.
“When we speak to them, the lung transplant recipients would say: ‘My donor removed my straw for me.’”
Lake said she had quite a good response to the challenge.
“I find a lot of people with family members who have lung diseases are doing it.
“In our hospital we have also had a lot of doctors and nurses doing it,” she said.
“My main message is to please not do this as just another social media challenge.
“Please, also do something about it. Sign up to become an organ donor.
“Tell your family and friends.”
Moore is living in Cape Town, waiting for his double lung transplant.
“Marchelle is pretty amazing and will be the one to get me back on my feet after my transplant,” he said.
“We really want to drive the straw challenge.”
Moore, a former marine, suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after his lungs were badly damaged during a rescue mission.