Four heart and lung charities have joined together to form one new organisation: the Cardiac and Respiratory Foundation. Their top goals are getting a lung cancer screening programme and free immunisation for a common chest virus.

The four groups that merged are the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, The Heart of Aotearoa, the Lung Foundation, and the Bronchiectasis Foundation. Bronchiectasis is a long-term lung condition where the airways get damaged and infected repeatedly. Letitia Harding, who used to run the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, now leads the new combined group. The Minister of Health is set to officially open the foundation at a launch event in Auckland on a Thursday, according to RNZ.

New Zealand has more than 29,000 registered charities — one of the highest numbers per person in the world. Harding says combining forces means fewer organisations competing for the same donations and the same government attention.

Lung cancer screening

The foundation wants a national lung cancer screening programme, which New Zealand does not currently have. Harding is pushing for targeted screening — meaning screening people most at risk, such as current and former heavy smokers — rather than screening everyone. She says this is about keeping costs down.

Other countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, already run targeted lung cancer screening using low-dose CT scans for high-risk groups. Harding's focus on targeted screening suggests she knows Treasury and the Ministry of Health will look closely at whether any proposal gives good value for money.

Free immunisation for RSV

The foundation also wants the government to fund immunisation for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). RSV is a common virus that affects the lungs and breathing. It is a leading cause of hospital stays for babies and older adults.

A product to protect against RSV, called nirsevimab, was approved as safe by Medsafe — New Zealand's medicine safety regulator — in 2024. But Pharmac, the government agency that decides which medicines are funded for free, has not yet added it to the public schedule. The foundation stepping in means the push for free RSV immunisation now has a bigger, combined voice behind it.

Why combine?

Running a charity takes money and people. Four separate charities meant four boards, four sets of costs, and four groups all asking the same ministers for help. Now there is one. The launch is in Auckland, which has the highest rates of respiratory disease in the country — particularly among Māori and Pasifika communities, where hospital stays for conditions like asthma and bronchiectasis are far higher than average.

The big question is whether one merged charity will actually have a stronger voice when it comes to getting funding through the government's Budget process and Pharmac's decision-making — or whether it just becomes a bigger organisation with the same limited resources. Heart and lung advocacy involve different medical experts and different relationships with specialist doctors, and sometimes they compete for the same health funding. The structure Harding and her board choose will matter.

The broader context here is that New Zealand's health system is under ongoing financial pressure. Charities and advocacy groups have become an important way to push new health programmes through government processes. A combined foundation covering both heart and lung conditions may carry more weight than any of the four groups did on their own. Its first priorities make clear where it plans to test that idea.