Kate Binnie
Following on from May’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show funded by Project Giving Back, here we are at the re-sited Asthma + Lung UK Breathing Space Rotherham garden launch on 16 September with Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas, who is a big supporter of Asthma + Lung UK’s work because her mum has COPD.
I spoke at length to Shirley about the importance of breathing — as a dancer, of course, breath is key to fluidity and control — and she has promised to support our work on further Breathing Space gardens which we hope to build in other hospitals and rehabilitation centres around the UK in areas of lung health inequality.
In my PhD research I developed the concept of Breath Literacy. This is not just an individual capability that can be learned, but something that also depends on wider social and structural conditions. How we breathe is shaped by where and how we live: by poverty and inequality, access to clean air and green space, and opportunities to move, connect and feel safe doing so.
Breathing Space gardens are one way of making some of those connections visible — creating accessible and beautiful spaces where people living with breathlessness can come together to garden, chat, explore movement safely, and connect with each other, themselves and the wider community.
Here are some pictures of the garden, and the Breathe Easy Rotherham group – which includes several ex-miners – doing a self-compassion meditation.
You can read about the project in my Lancet Respiratory Spotlight article, and learn some of the simple, trauma-informed breathlessness management techniques at my next OXCERPC course (date TBC for 2027)
