All You Need is Lungs

For Lung Cancer Awareness Month 2023, we launched our All You Need is Lungs campaign urging people to visit their GP if they notice unusual, persistent symptoms, regardless of their age or smoking history.

This campaign features 24 people - all non-smokers who are living with lung cancer. They don’t fit one profile and had a range of symptoms, including many non-respiratory.

This is a joint initiative with ALK Positive UK and the Ruth Strauss Foundation.

It’s well known that smoking is a significant risk factor for lung cancer. It causes almost three-quarters (72%) of cases. But, it’s not just a smokers’ disease. Anyone can get lung cancer.

20% of people diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked and this figure is rising. By ‘never-smoker’ we mean someone who has smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

People who don’t smoke usually don't consider lung cancer as a possibility, even when they have persistent unexplained symptoms.

Around 90% of people with non-smoking lung cancer are diagnosed when the disease is at an advanced stage when treatment that could cure them is no longer an option.

As a result, too many people die needlessly from non-smoking lung cancer. It’s now the eighth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the UK, and the seventh most prevalent cancer in the world.

This campaign aims to raise awareness that anyone can get lung cancer regardless of their age or smoking history.