Kathi MacNaughton, RN, BSN

I am an experienced consumer health education writer who had a career in nursing that spanned more than 30 years, much of it in the field of home health care, working with chronically ill people. I am also an avid fitness enthusiast and all-round advocate for healthy living. I believe that patients and families have not only a right, but also the responsibility to take charge of their own health. No one needs to give in to a disease or to the aging process! It is possible to continue to live a quality life.

I have cared for many people with COPD in the course of my career, but it all became much more real to me when my mother was diagnosed with COPD, after years of smoking and a generally unhealthy lifestyle. She spent the last 4 years of her life in my care, dependent on round-the-clock oxygen and many medications. I had already been writing educational content for several years on allergies and asthma for a number of health-oriented websites and blogs, as well as some pharmaceutical companies. But during the years before my mom died, I began to write about COPD, using my unique perspective as both a healthcare professional and a caregiver.

My father also died of COPD, a decade before my mother was diagnosed. Having grown up with 4 adults, all of whom smoked when I was a child, I also suffer from both nasal, skin and eye allergies, as well as mild asthma. I am grateful to be as healthy as I am today, thanks to consistent healthy lifestyle choices. I am married to an equally healthy husband and mother to two grown daughters and grandmother to two darling grandsons. I expect to live to be 100 years old or more!

Click here to read all of Kathi's articles on LungCancer.net