World HMV Day
20th May 2026
For World HMV Day 2026, we want to enrol the help and support of the HMV Multi-Disciplinary clinical team (MDT). If you treat and support HMV patients and their carers, we need your help!
This year we are promoting an awareness campaign called #2minuteswiththeHMVteam.
Help us by following our social media and sharing our posts with your networks.
World HMV Day 2026
The aim of World HMV Day is to raise awareness, share knowledge, improve education amongst clinicians and HMV users, and, most importantly, to support and represent HMV patients, as well as their families and carers. For our 2026 #2minuteswiththeHMVteam campaign, we are inviting all who treat and support HMV patients share their role on social media by posting your stories. We’ve provided some questions below that we’d love to hear the answers to.
By taking part in World HMV Day, you’ll be helping us to raise awareness of the important and positive impact that the HMV MDT can have on people’s lives.
We’d like to hear from:
- Specialist nurses
- Physiotherapists
- Medical consultants
– Respiratory
– Critical care
– Neurology
– ENT
– Palliative care - Physiologists
- Dietitians
- Speech and language therapists
- Occupational therapists
- Community teams
- Healthcare assistants
- Technicians
Steps to creating your #2minuteswiththeHMVteam video: – Download the PDF Guidelines for World HMV Day 2026 here.
The Home Mechanical Ventilation in Partnership would like you, as someone who treats and supports HMV patients, to record a short clip (max of two minutes) on your phone, and we’d like you to tell us:
- What is your name and where do you work
- What is your professional background
- How long have you worked with HMV users?
- How did you come to specialise/work in this area?
- What is your role in supporting HMV users and in what way can you help them?
- What do you enjoy most about your job?
- What is the worst part of your job?
- What are the biggest challenges you face?
- Why should other healthcare professionals consider a career specialising in HMV?
- What do you know now that you wish you’d known 10 years ago?
- What is your ‘top tip’?
- What would be your desert island luxury?
We’d love to hear from you with either your written answers and/or short film clips, ideally by 1st May so we can include these on our website https://hmvip.co.uk/world-hmv-day.
To share your answers and clips:
The Home Mechanical Ventilation in Partnership would like you, as a member of the MDT team supporting HMV patients, to share your answers to as many of the questions above as possible (but at least the first five questions) either as written responses, or to record a short, two-minute clip on your phone to reflect #2minuteswiththeHMVteam
The easiest way we have found to share your clip is via WhatsApp (07795 342804) or you can share your written answers with gillian@wychwoodcommunications.com. Gill is the secretariat for HMViP and will be collating all the clips and written answers which we receive.
We’d also ask you to share your clips on your own social media channels – Twitter, Facebook, etc. using the hashtags #WorldHMVDay, #2minuteswiththeHMVteam and #Addinglifetoyears.
Also if you are using Twitter, please tag @HMViPGroup and consider joining our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1354156945440480/.
To download our logo, please click here. Please share this and our hashtags: #WorldHMVDay,#2minuteswiththeHMVteam and #addinglifetoyears.
To follow us on Twitter, please go to @HMViPGroup; visit us on LinkedIn here or join our Home Mechanical Ventilation Facebook Group
Podcast Conversations 2025
Earlier in May, we filmed two podcast conversations to explore care in the HMV community.
These were chaired by HMViP member Lisa Emmett, lead physiotherapist and joint clinical lead with the home ventilation team at Leeds Teaching Trust.
Podcast 1
What HMV users and their families should consider when appointing a carer, whether an agency or a PA
The first of these conversations looks more closely at the options for care. We consider unpaid carers, personal assistants and agency care, considering the benefits of each option and exploring when one option may work better than another.
Our thanks to the participants:
- Sarah Rose, HMV user, member of the HMViP and Co-Chair of the Trustees, Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance
- Sue McCallum, personal assistant to Sarah
- Kathryn Shackleton, carer of husband Iain and member of the HMViP
- Kate Steel, Paediatric Clinical Director, Health &Social Care Services (HASCS)
- Tom Nicholson, carer to brother Stephen and family friend Ben
Podcast 2
The carer experience and support options available
In the second podcast, the conversation focuses on the role caregivers in enhancing the quality of life of HMV users by providing care at home, and the support available to caregivers from NHS ventilation services and respite care.
Our thanks to the participants:
- Alison Armstrong, Chair of the HMViP and Consultant Nurse for the regional North East Assisted Ventilation Service
- Martin House Hospice: Lucy, Katie, Fi and Carly
- Kathryn Shackleton, carer of husband Iain and member of the HMViP
- Kate Steel, Paediatric Clinical Director, Health & Social Care Services (HASCS)
- Tom Nicholson, carer to brother Stephen and family friend Ben
What is World HMV Day?
We launched World HMV Day in 2023 and our aim is to raise awareness, share knowledge, improve education amongst clinicians and HMV users, and, most importantly, to support and represent HMV patients, as well as their families and carers.
Why is World HMV Day on 20th May?
World HMV Day and the HMViP website are dedicated to the memory of Ronnie Ward, who was a participant in the HOT-HMV trial [3].
Ronnie, a former naval serviceman, was diagnosed with COPD in 2014. Using HMV reduced his risk of being hospitalised and enabled him to enjoy several additional years at home in Sussex with his family.
Ronnie’s wife, Julie, said: “I can’t stress strongly enough what it meant for us as a family and for Ronnie to have this additional time.”
Julie continued:
“Without HMV I am convinced we would not have had those extra years of living a relatively normal life. Before starting HMV, Ronnie was admitted to hospital every few weeks but once he started on the machine, he didn’t have any hospital admissions and his care was managed at home. I can’t stress strongly enough what it meant for us as a family, and for Ronnie, to have this additional time.
“There wasn’t a lot of support for family carers at the time that Ronnie was using the device, so it was quite alarming at the beginning. Even though I am a nursery nurse, I wasn’t confident that I was giving Ronnie the right support.
“If the HMVIP website had been available eight years ago, it would have made my life a lot less stressful! I am therefore delighted to support the work of the group and to honour Ronnie’s memory by sharing my experience with other family carers.”
To listen to Julie’s and Ronnie’s story, click on the link below:
https://hmvip.co.uk/carer-story-julie
References:
[1] https://thorax.bmj.com/content/78/5/523 Murphy et al, Cost-effectiveness of home non-invasive ventilation in patients with persistent hypercapnia after an acute exacerbation of COPD in the UK)
[2] https://hmvip.co.uk/research-and-evidence
[3] https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/52/suppl_62/PA1679