Chronic lung diseases cause permanent damage to the lungs.
There are few treatment options out there that can offer a lasting solution to the inevitable feeling of breathlessness, which is why the introduction of presumed consent for organ donation is a game-changing moment in the campaign to beat lung disease.
Those who have been lucky enough to receive a lung transplant have their lives transformed.
They can improve life expectancy by five years on average and many more survive beyond that.
Read more: Lecht Ski Centre boss speaks of lung transplant 'lease of life'
That extra time means a new lease of life. It means no longer being tied to an oxygen concentrator 24 hours a day. It means more birthdays and Christmases together with family.
For the lung diseases for which transplant is a viable treatment option, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the average survival time from diagnosis is 3 years.
Every month spent on a waiting list means more people desperately waiting for the call that could save their life.
Sadly, we know that a quarter of people on the waiting list for a lung transplant waiting list will die, or be unfit to undergo surgery, before donated lungs become available.
Read more: Scotland's first 'Heart in a Box' transplant patients thank donors
Sticking with the current opt-in approach to organ donation will not be enough to meet the demand for lung transplants, especially when time is of the essence.
We shouldn’t accept a situation where someone’s chance of survival is limited because of a lack of available organs.
An opt-out system of organ donation will have the most dramatic impact on family refusal, which is one of the biggest barriers to transplant.
Read more: Opting in or out of organ donation 'should be a legal requirement'
The protections in the Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Bill strike the right balance in ensuring that those who do not want to donate have their wishes respected, whilst at the same time encouraging more people to give the gift of life to others.
This legislation is not going to be a panacea for everyone who needs treatment for their lung condition, and we must also invest in better respiratory care.
However, the switch to presumed consent will change the conversation around organ donation, giving new hope to people with lung conditions and offering them the liberating feeling of breathing easy once again.
Joseph Carter is head of British Lung Foundation Scotland
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here