If you are looking for reliable general information on a range of lung conditions and lung health issues, the information we have on our website, including our factsheets, is a great place to start. All of this information is based on the latest European Respiratory Society (ERS) research and clinical best practice, and is regularly reviewed by ERS experts.

The ELF team is unfortunately not able to provide specific medical advice to individuals. If you have this type of query, it is best to speak to your healthcare professional who will have more insight into your situation.

In some cases, we may be able to ask an ERS expert for their advice or feedback on a particular case, but it is unlikely that they will be able to offer substantial support or information.

Travelling by air with oxygen can unfortunately be quite difficult, with different airlines having different rules and procedures.

To help you find the information you need regarding an airline’s oxygen policy for passengers, we put together the Air Travel Database. This contains details of most airlines’ oxygen policies and contact information and should be up-to-date. If you need any specific information, it would be best for you to contact the airline directly.

We are hoping to work with all of the relevant stakeholders involved in air travel and oxygen to try to make the process easier for people travelling with oxygen.

If you are making a trip to another country in Europe, it would be best to speak to your healthcare professional in the first instance.

You may also find it useful to contact a patient organisation in the country you are travelling to see if they can offer any advice or support. Check our patient organisation network for details of organisations that may be able to help you.

People with lung conditions, carers, parents and other family members are involved in ELF’s work at every level, and we regularly support patient participation in ERS and EU projects.

If you are interested in getting involved in our work as a patient or carer, we recommend that you complete our free online course, the European Patient Ambassador Programme (EPAP).

EPAP was designed to offer an introduction to some of the skills and knowledge you may need to represent yourself and/or others successfully. Once you have completed EPAP, you will have the opportunity to join an online group where we share patients’ views and experiences to shape the future of healthcare. Please contact us if you have any queries about EPAP.

You may also want to see if there is a patient organisation in your area, and if they have any activities in which you can get involved. Please check our patient organisation network for more information.

If you represent a patient organisation working within the field of lung health, please complete this short form and we will add you to the network.

Joining the ELF network will not affect your membership of any other networks or organisations.

There are a number of benefits to being part of the ELF patient organisation network, including:

• The opportunity to join us at the annual European Respiratory Society International Congress
• Involving you and your patient members in European and international research and the development of guidelines for healthcare professionals
• European and international networking opportunities
• Training and support for your patient members through the European Patient Ambassador Programme, as well as the opportunity to collaborate on translations and new content
• Helping raise awareness of your organisation by including news about your activities and campaigns in our monthly newsletter
• Helping you find patients and patient organisations to get involved in your opportunities
• Working with you to translate our patient materials into your language, or developing materials on topics important to you

If you are planning a study and would like to find out whether we can help you to recruit patients, please contact us to discuss whether we can help you with this.

Please note that it is our policy not to collaborate in this way on projects of a commercial nature.

ELF focuses on providing reliable information on lung conditions and involving patients in research and guideline development. We do not provide financial support to individuals or organisations.

ELF is very happy to work with members of the media on articles, and we have a number of patient ambassadors and healthcare professionals available to provide comments to the media.

Please contact us with your enquiry.

We are keen to be able to translate our materials and website so that as many patients and healthcare professionals as possible are able to benefit from them. If you are an ERS member and are interested in volunteering to help us translate our materials, please contact info@europeanlung.org.

Please note that we require all of our volunteer translators to be members of ERS.

We are very happy for you to link to our resources, as long as you do not make any changes to them and you acknowledge us as the producers.

If you have any questions about this, please email us.

All of the resources on our website are written alongside and reviewed by ERS experts to ensure they are reliable and up-to-date. Therefore, it is unlikely that we will be able to endorse your resource, website or product if we have not been involved in its development.

Please also note that it is our policy not to share or link to anything of a commercial nature.

In 2014, we set up Healthy Lungs for Life to replace World Spirometry Day as our main awareness-raising campaign.

Rather than focus our efforts on one single day, we would like to encourage you to hold events at any time throughout the year that suits you.

Healthy Lungs for Life is one of the largest ever lung health campaigns, raising awareness of the importance of healthy lungs to healthcare professionals, scientists, primary care, patients, policy makers and the public through a full range of events, projects and promotional activities.

Find out more on Healthy Lungs for Life.

There are many ways in which you can get involved and bring the Healthy Lungs for Life campaign to your own community.

Please visit Healthy Lungs for Life or join the Healthy Lungs for Life Facebook group for more information and resources or contact us.

We have put together a Q&A with questions asked by respiratory patients and answered by a respiratory expert. You can also find general information on our COVID-19 page which includes other useful links.