World COPD Day Big Baton Pass 2025
Passing the Baton: The Story Behind the World COPD Day Big Baton Pass and the 2025 Event
World COPD Day is a global moment to raise awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), highlight the impact it has on millions of people worldwide, and promote better prevention, diagnosis and care. Organised annually by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), the day brings together healthcare professionals, patient groups and advocates across more than 50 countries to shine a light on a condition that is common, treatable, and too often under‑diagnosed.
In recent years, one of the most distinctive and collaborative World COPD Day initiatives has been the Big Baton Pass – a virtual, globe‑spanning event designed to connect people living with COPD, clinicians and organisations through shared activity, learning and advocacy.
The origins of the Big Baton Pass
The World COPD Day Big Baton Pass began in 2023 as a way to coordinate global COPD advocacy efforts into a single, connected event. The concept is simple but powerful: a virtual baton is “passed” from country to country over 24 hours, mirroring a relay, with each host showcasing activities, stories and initiatives that promote life with COPD and the importance of staying active.
What started as a modest 24‑hour treadmill challenge led by patient advocate and “COPD Athlete” Russell Winwood quickly evolved. The event grew into a full day of live‑streamed contributions from around the world, featuring pulmonary rehabilitation sessions, physical activity demonstrations, patient stories, educational talks and creative approaches to living well with COPD.
At its core, the Big Baton Pass was created to:
- Bring people with COPD and healthcare professionals together across borders
- Highlight the role of physical activity and pulmonary rehabilitation
- Amplify patient voices and lived experience
- Create a shared sense of global momentum on World COPD Day
This inclusive, community‑driven approach has helped the Big Baton Pass grow year on year, with participation from multiple continents and a wide range of organisations and patient advocates.
How the Big Baton Pass works
The Big Baton Pass takes place online on World COPD Day, with sessions hosted sequentially by partners in different countries. As the baton “travels” across time zones, each host site contributes live content, allowing the event to run almost continuously for the full day.
Sessions typically include:
- Live or recorded physical activity and exercise sessions suitable for people with COPD
- Presentations from clinicians, researchers and patient advocates
- Creative and social activities, such as dance or music‑based breathing exercises
- Opportunities for viewers to join in remotely and interact with contributors
All content is shared for awareness‑raising and educational purposes, with a strong emphasis on encouraging safe, appropriate physical activity and engagement.
The Big Baton Pass 2025
The World COPD Day Big Baton Pass 2025 returned as a live, global online broadcast running across most of the day. Building on previous years, the 2025 event brought together healthcare professionals, organisations and people living with COPD to elevate awareness, inspire participation and showcase lung‑friendly activity.
Highlights of the 2025 Big Baton Pass included:
- Contributions from international partners across multiple time zones
- A renewed focus on enjoyable, accessible physical activity
- Sessions led by both professionals and people living with COPD
- Opportunities for viewers worldwide to tune in and take part remotely
By making the event fully virtual and free to access, the Big Baton Pass continued to lower barriers to participation and ensured that World COPD Day could be experienced as a truly global, shared event.
Why the Big Baton Pass matters
The Big Baton Pass has become more than an awareness‑raising event. It represents a collective statement: that people living with COPD are not alone, that staying active matters, and that collaboration between patients, clinicians and organisations can drive meaningful change.
By passing the baton from country to country, the event reinforces a shared commitment to improving respiratory health, learning from each other, and keeping COPD visible on the global health agenda.
As World COPD Day and the Big Baton Pass continue to grow, they demonstrate the power of connection, creativity and patient leadership in tackling long‑term conditions – one step, and one baton, at a time.