LEGACY

Jane then earned her Master’s in Pulmonary Nursing from Yale and was recruited to start the first pulmonary rehab program in Connecticut.

Since then, Jane has remained committed to improving lung health, most recently advocating for others to join her in making a legacy gift to the American Lung Association. In the past, she has even put her baking skills to work making her famous chocolate chip cookies for every National Board member who joined the Legacy Society!

“The American Lung Association has done so much for me and for my patients. I felt strongly I needed to do something to give back.”

Jane used beneficiary designations for her legacy gift, which she stresses is an especially convenient giving method.

“There are so many ways that you can become a legacy member, and almost everybody knows somebody with a lung problem. This is one way that you can honor them or their memory.”

Beyond that, she also wants everyone to know how simple it is to make this type of gift, saying, “Just do it, it’s so easy.”

Led by Northwestern Medicine scientists, the Lung Health Cohort is a pioneering nationwide study that will track 4,000 young adults between the ages of 25 and 35. Scientists will follow participants for about five years to evaluate how their environment, lifestyle and physical activity habits affect their lung health.

“The Lung Health Cohort is an ambitious effort to discover what biomarkers as well as genetic and environmental factors lead to the development of lung disease, so we might ultimately prevent the disease,” said American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer.

The longitudinal study is made possible through a $24.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and a $1 million donation from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The goal is to renew the grant to follow the study participants for the rest of their lives.

“This study represents a paradigm shift toward improving lung health rather than always reacting to lung disease,” said principal investigator Dr. Ravi Kalhan, pulmonologist and professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We want to come up with a framework to intercept chronic lung disease before it becomes a problem. Just as primary care doctors can prevent heart attacks by proactively checking patients’ cholesterol levels, we hope this study helps us find the equivalent of ‘cholesterol’ for the lung so that we may react to prevent the disease.”

Recruitment efforts will soon begin at sites across the country, led by many of the best lung disease researchers at top institutions who will leverage our Airways Clinical Research Centers, the largest national non-profit clinical network dedicated to asthma and COPD research.

With the findings from this landmark study, the American Lung Association anticipates gaining invaluable insight into how lung disease develops, and more importantly, how to then use that information to prevent future generations from being affected by this disease.

The American Lung Association’s National Board of Directors is the driving force behind our Legacy Challenge. They have generously offered to donate the funds unlocked by each new legacy gift commitment. If you make a new commitment and notify us, then our National Board will make a $1,000 donation in your name. If you provide the estimated value of your future gift to help us in our long-term planning, then you can generate an additional $500.

You can make a planned gift by remembering the American Lung Association in your will or trust, or by naming us as a beneficiary of your retirement plan, insurance policy or other account. A gift of any amount will unlock this significant current support from our Board.

When you tell us about your thoughtful gift through a non-binding commitment form, you can be a part of our challenge, help propel current lung disease prevention initiatives and create your own legacy of improving lung health. With this kind of gift, you are also sending a strong message to the world about your values for clean air and lung health.

Contact our Vice President of Individual and Planned Giving, Cheryl Smoot, at Cheryl.Smoot@Lung.org or 312-801-7642 to learn more or to share your plans.

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