POSTED: Friday, March 12, 2010 --- 9:35 p.m.

This is one of Your Stories.

A local woman e-mailed us suggesting we do our part to make everyone aware of the dangers of a common but relatively unknown disease.

She's hoping her personal tragedy will help others.

Every year this lung disease kills as many people as breast cancer but Ginger Spaight is just one of many who had no idea what Pulmonary Fibrosis was until it killed her husband.

She says, "Jim was Irish, very proud of being Irish."

Spaight still looks lovingly at pictures of her husband Jim, a man that was at her side every day, through thick and thin, until he died one month ago.

She says, "It just kept getting worse, and worse, and worse."

For four years Jim suffered. He got tired easily and had trouble walking. It took doctors four years to figure out Jim had Pulmonary Fibrosis, a lung disease. The diagnosis baffled the couple.

She says, "What is it? We had never heard of it before."

They soon learned there was nothing doctors could do.

James Couser, a pulmonary and critical care physician at St. Mary's Hospital says, "It's extraordinarily frustrating."

Spaight says, "It's devastating. He walked out and said I just got my death sentence but I didn't get it from a judge, I got it from a doctor. I'm going to die."

One year later Jim lost his battle with the disease.

According to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation every year the disease kills 40-thousand Americans, about the same amount as breast cancer.

Couser says, "This disease, in general, sneaks up on people. It's a diagnosis that's not often easy to make. Approximately 50-percent of them will be dead in 3 years."

Spaight wants to change that. She sees hundreds of events every year organized to fund raise for things like breast cancer research. Yet Pulmonary Fibrosis is something many have never heard of.

She says, "I think that if people knew they would force the issue and there would be more research done. I'd like them to be aware that if they have these symptoms they should see a doctor."

It's something she says could have at least given her husband a chance.

Spaight says ultimately she'd like to work with others to begin some sort of fund raising and awareness event in our area.

The most common symptoms of Pulmonary Fibrosis are shortness of breath and a dry cough.

To learn more about Pulmonary Fibrosis and it's symptoms head to:

http://pulmonaryfibrosis.org/ipf.htm