World Asthma Day is a day committed to promoting asthma awareness and the continued development of treatments. Here, we highlight the history behind the day, as well as some ways in which you can get involved to promote asthma research and cure development – both in the UK and across the world.

What is World Asthma Day?

World Asthma Day is an annual event celebrated on the first Tuesday in May. Each year has a new theme, to raise awareness for an aspect of the chronic illness. Recent themes of World Asthma Day include:
2025: Make Inhaled Treatments Accessible for ALL
2024: Asthma Education Empowers
2023: Asthma Care For All
2022: Closing Gaps in Asthma Care
The day was first marked in 1998 when it coincided with the inaugural World Asthma Meeting. From these early beginnings, World Asthma Day has now grown into what is widely recognised as the world’s most important asthma awareness event.
World Asthma Day is organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), an organisation made up of asthma experts. The annual event is designed to “improve asthma awareness and care around the world”.

Why is World Asthma Day celebrated?

The primary reason why World Asthma Day is celebrated is to “raise awareness, care and support for those affected by asthma”. Although this has a natural focus on the people that suffer from asthma themselves, it also extends the support to those around them – including family, friends, partners and caregivers.
According to Asthma + Lung UK, over 7 million people in the UK have asthma, and four people in the UK die every day due to an asthma attack. This staggering statistic highlights how important it is that we continue developing asthma treatments and how beneficial they will be to large numbers of people. By celebrating World Asthma Day, we can promote a better understanding of the condition and work to find new ways to prevent and manage asthma, ultimately improving the lives of those affected.


What do you do on World Asthma Day?

On World Asthma Day, people and organisations are encouraged to host events and workshops or put up posters that help to raise awareness of the condition and how to look after those who are affected by it. Activities may include educational talks, distributing information and providing resources on managing asthma effectively. The aim is to promote a better understanding of asthma and highlight the importance of early diagnosis, proper medication and creating a healthy environment for asthmatics.

How can you get involved?

There are lots of ways to get involved with World Asthma Day if you want to show your support for the event. If you’re a school, Asthma + Lung UK offer an assembly pack that includes everything you need to host an assembly about asthma. For other organisations, you can host workshops or display posters to help raise awareness and promote a better understanding of the condition.

Take part in an asthma clinical trial with FluCamp

At FluCamp, we understand that asthma can be an incredibly worrying and debilitating illness for those who suffer. If you have asthma, it can also mean that you suffer from other illnesses, such as a common cold, in a more severe manner than those who don’t have asthma – increasing the concern for both you and those around you.We conduct asthma clinical trials to understand how the common cold impacts asthmatics. Our research helps to discover new medications and treatments that can either reduce the severity of asthma attacks and their symptoms or stop them before they even get started. This groundbreaking work is reliant on volunteers, or Everyday Heroes as we like to call them, who help us to push forward with our research. To find out more about becoming one of these Everyday Heroes, read more on our trials for asthma sufferers or sign-up to participate in a trial today!