Dr Richard Hewitt is a respiratory consultant at Royal Brompton Hospital specialising in interstitial lung disease. His research into the early signs of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) could help save the lives of people with this condition.

IPF is a type of interstitial lung disease (ILD) that causes progressive scarring in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Around 6,000 new cases of IPF are diagnosed in the UK each year and as it is a disease that is intrinsically linked with aging, the burden of this disease is likely to increase as the population ages. With an average survival time of between 3 - 5 years, it carries a poorer prognosis than many forms of cancer and is responsible for approximately 1% of all UK deaths.

Working closely with King’s College London, where he is setting up a research group, Richard aims to study people who have early changes on CT scanning known as interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA), which have the potential to develop into pulmonary fibrosis.

Please donate to this appeal to help Richard's life-saving research.