Asthmatic athlete a PR success
South African swimming sensation Roland Schoeman has used his public profile as an asthmatic athlete to raise awareness for this condition and has successfully blown many asthma misconceptions out of the water.
Since becoming the South African spokesperson for total control of asthma in December 2004, Schoeman has sought to encourage others to achieve their goals and the campaign has succeeded in raising asthma awareness, encouraged people to look more closely at the management of their condition and rethink their attitude towards what they can achieve.
While the campaign, part of a GlaxoSmithKline initiative, is only six months old, it has proved to be a very useful way of using public relations to change patients' attitudes towards their asthma care. The ultimate aim is to empower asthmatics to expect and demand more from themselves and their asthma treatments so that they may be able to achieve Total Asthma Control.
