VIDEOS "myCOPD-CHALLENGE 2022"

Eberhard Jordan: So that's pretty damn high.

Martin Gütlbauer: Well, hello there.

Dr. Milos Petrovic: Mighty.

Clemens Stiegholzer: Actually, I'm not his chauffeur.

Eberhard Jordan: What is the myCOPD Challenge about? In principle, it's about sending a signal that even with severe COPD, you can lead an active life. For me, prominent personalities were Russell Winwood, who, with 28% lung function, does marathon, triathlon, he's an Australian, or also "Jupp" Brandl, who went up the Cologne Cathedral with oxygen. And back then I thought: that's a great campaign. That's exciting. And from that, you can create an awareness campaign. And it's not about someone like me now, who's a bit crazy, wanting to climb the DC Tower. It's about showing: Okay, if I train, and you don't have to train as much as I do, I can get my life better under control.

Dr. Milos Petrovic: We are already in the 4th year of the myCOPD Challenge. This year's motto is "Higher, further." And the awareness campaign, which we started, and which Eberhard leads very well, should show that if you have COPD, and COPD is a severe illness, a chronic illness, that through training, regular intake of medication, the activity, which is very severely restricted in many COPD patients, can be improved, can be increased. That means you can, if you train and take your medication regularly, also work wonders. Of course, you can't expect every patient to climb the DC Tower. No question. But if you manage to improve in small steps, so that daily life no longer means a restriction, then this campaign is already won for me.

Eberhard Jordan: It's twice as high as last year. And that's already, yes, immense. And I also have respect for that. And I know that I have to train much more.

Martin Gütlbauer: If someone had asked five years ago, specifically: Can you imagine going up the DC Tower with Eberhard? I would have looked at them strangely, "Hmm, what do you want from me?" After St. Stephen's Cathedral, I would have been much bolder to answer that with a "Yes." Yes, I can imagine that. Before St. Stephen's Cathedral, are you crazy, COPD 3 to 4. That probably won't work, I think. But Eberhard convinced me.

Eberhard Jordan: I believe that if I manage to build good muscle, then it's possible. I will, of course, also cycle. I will, of course, also hike, and train stair climbing with Martin. That's one appointment a week. So you really have to imagine it like a second job.

Eberhard Jordan: What makes me very happy again is that the Rehab Innsbruck with Dr. Puelacher is on board. There's a different atmosphere there, a little bit, because they have another guest of honor. That is Mr. Franz Xaver Gruber, President of the Self-Help Groups in Tyrol. And he will more or less take over the patronage and probably walk along at the same time.

Dr. Christoph Puelacher: The message is, whoever takes their medication, whoever stops smoking and whoever participates in medical exercise therapy or carries it out, can influence their illness or the course of their illness very, very positively. Many people can also stop it.

David Friedl: For us, it was very important from the beginning that we, as the DC Tower, Austria's tallest office building, support an awareness campaign here together with Mr. Jordan. We find it very important to raise awareness for this illness. And as I said, I have been in contact with Mr. Jordan for over a year now. Due to the pandemic, it was unfortunately not possible last year. That's why we were very happy to support it this year. For this very difficult path, the 250 meters to the rooftop, we wish him all the best on his way.

Eberhard Jordan: Sponsors also need to be brought on board, communication needs to be built up. It's not just about the day itself, but we are really running a campaign. All of this has to be organized, it has to be coordinated, and it also has to work well. But I would like to specifically thank the DC Tower now, for actively engaging in the whole situation and saying: Okay, we have a professional PR agency, they can cooperate, we would like to offer that. And for that, I have to say: Thank you!

Eberhard Jordan: I hope you liked the video. I would of course be happy if it is liked, or shared, or simply a comment is left here on the homepage. And in this sense, I wish you a beautiful and active time.

Eberhard Jordan: If I think back now, what my life was like before COPD, then I have to say it was very hectic. At that time, I had an agency with about ten people. Actually, I was somehow proud of it. From today's perspective, I would say, you don't have to be that proud that you wore yourself out. And most importantly, I smoked a lot. It was simply stress smoking, like many others. Then came an abrupt end to the whole game, and at the same time my body, which meant: "Not like this anymore."

Eberhard Jordan: What happened after the intensive care unit? Those were actually very sobering moments, because without my children's company or my friends, I couldn't even go around the block. I was simply scared. And my children were told that their dad might become a nursing case. I definitely didn't want that. And I remembered that I had trained before, and I thought "Well, then try it, if more is possible here, and you might still be able to see that you can at least go around the corner by yourself again." This part then developed in such a way that I started walking to the bus stop. Then I managed to walk directly to the fitness center. With breaks, of course, but that was "Wow" for me. There's still more to come. During training, I noticed that it did me incredibly good when I noticed I was gaining muscle, because it simply made everyday life easier for me.

Eberhard Jordan: I hope you liked the video. I would of course be happy if it is liked, or shared, or simply a comment is left here on the homepage. And in this sense, I wish you a beautiful and active time.

Eberhard Jordan: In the last video, I talked about how good training is for me. And I have to confess, I fell for it. And I started to become more and more ambitious, to do more and more. Until at some point I said, "Yes, okay, I want to try to really show what is possible with training."

Dr. Milos Petrovic: So I got to know Mr. Jordan as a determined, well-informed, severely ill COPD patient, who actually does what he does not just for himself, but is also a role model for other patients, and can also provide support.

Eberhard Jordan:I train, I do, I want to know. And that's how the thought arose: "I want to go up St. Stephen's Cathedral." Yes, and in 2018 the time had come. Then I went up Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral together with Martin Gütlbauer, my therapist, and the attending doctor. Slowly, but we made it up. And yes, when I was at the top, I was very happy. And then in my exuberance I said, next year it will be the Danube Tower.

Eberhard Jordan:I hope you liked the video. I would of course be happy if it is liked, or shared, or simply a comment is left here on the homepage. And in this sense, I wish you a beautiful and active time.

Eberhard Jordan: I mentioned that at St. Stephen's Cathedral, in my exuberance, I said "In 2019, I'll do the Danube Tower." Yes, and then sometime in November it really happened. We trained more, trained longer, and we made it. And that's something where you just have to say, the atmosphere was there, the mood was there, everything was simply even more intense. And then I thought to myself, "Actually nice, actually nice that I despite my illness can do these things and experience them."

Eberhard Jordan: Actually, I wanted to go up the Millennium Tower. And then came the pandemic. Stubborn as I was, I tried to ignore that somehow and constantly had to postpone it.

Martin Gütlbauer: It didn't seem that difficult to me now. It was more annoying with the rules etc. How do we do this now? And that it constantly had to be postponed was also practically difficult to regulate, but motivation-wise, at least from my side, it wasn't that difficult.

Eberhard Jordan: In 2020, I actually found another activity. With my audacity, I wrote to Humboldt Verlag to see if they were interested in a book on the topic "Active Life with COPD." And that was a direct hit. And that's how it came about that in that year, I was quite busy writing the book. In 2021, it's finally the Millennium Tower's turn, with its 48 floors.

Dr. Milos Petrovic: I must say that this year's challenge has been a great challenge, also regarding the pandemic, also with the measures.

Eberhard Jordan: What is clear, of course, is that I had been eyeing for a while the DC Tower, because it is the tallest office building in Austria. It is an incredibly striking architectural example in Vienna. I then sought contact here and he said yes, and immediately got involved and is truly an active partner, for which I am very happy.

Eberhard Jordan: I hope you liked the video. I would of course be happy if it is liked, or shared, or simply a comment is left here on the homepage. And in this sense, I wish you a beautiful and active time.

Eberhard Jordan: The alarm clock rang at half past four, and I knew at six o'clock I had to get Clemens out of bed, so we can drive with the Cadillac to the location. It all worked out quite well. Except for the weather, which is a bit too foggy. But it's November, and that's quite normal for this time in Vienna.

Clemens Stiegholzer: Well then, all the best!

Julia Riedler: As every year, the Vienna Red Cross is here at the myCOPD-Challenge of Mr. Jordan with our first aid and ambulance service. A team of paramedics supports the myCOPD-Challenge here and is here for the health and safety of Mr Jordan and of all those present at the challenge. And we are so pleased to be able to contribute with our presence to raising awareness and also consciousness for the lung disease COPD itself and for the needs of all COPD patients.

Mashiah Sheikh: Chiesi was certified as a B-Corp company for the second year in a row. Two cornerstones of B-Corp certification are the support for the local community and the welfare of customers, which, as a pharmaceutical company, are the patients. And therefore this challenge simply fits to us. We have been involved right from the beginning as the main sponsor. The achievement of Mr. Jordan is extremely inspiring. He shows that it is not only important to treat COPD with medication, but that exercise also improves the quality of life of COPD patients significantly.

Nina Binder: On behalf of the DC-Tower Management as well as on behalf of Mr David Friedl we would like to congratulate Mr Jordan for his great campaign and performance in climbing the steps of the DC-Tower. We are very happy to be the host venue of this year's Challenge, that we were able to be part of it, to support him and we also hope to bring a bit more awareness to the public by supporting this. And we have set ourselves the goal to climb the stairs of the DC-Tower in the upcoming year, because we haven't dared to do it until now.

DI Walter Cihal: We as the technical service provider here in the house actually joined the challenge by providing technical assistance. We were allowed take part in the support here and it was very, very exciting to see how our staff here was extremely enthusiastic and also fully committed. These achievements impressed not only me, but everyone else here too. And we are happy that it all went so smoothly.

Eberhard Jordan: How was the climb? Well, I would say very very rhythmic. We only did twice or three times step changes inside.

Martin Gütlbauer: It went well, really well today. So much better than it did in the test runs. Back then the rhythm wasn´t that smooth. But today everything that we had planned, really came together perfectly. And I don't know how we could have done it any better.

Eberhard Jordan: I would say, from the 40th floor I started to tell myself "Eberhard chill, just relax". And also yesterday my daughter showed me a video of a fish or two fish, actually it was one big fish teaching the little one how to swim. And he doesn't do anything other than saying `Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming!´ And that's what I tried to do. So I just thought to myself: Well, he's swimming, I'll climb the stairs. It´s actually no big deal.

Dr. Milos Petrovic: I must say that Eberhard is a role model patient, who really trains very hard and regularly. His muscle building and cardio endurance, are really good and work for him. And this is why he achieves this performance, which really is remarkable.

Prim. Dr. Arschang Valipour: Eberhard Jordan showed us today that despite advanced COPD you can still achieve a lot with this chronic lung disease. Through discipline, consistent training, through regular medical care and the medication available today he has climbed some 1600 steps up the DC-Tower, that´s 60 floors, in the company of a team that supported him. And that with COPD in an advanced stage is really a great accomplishment. He certainly deserves to be congratulated and I think he has sent an important signal to draw attention to the disease COPD.

Andreas Budz: Mr. Primarius Valipour has mentioned it before, that you have to imagine you could only breath through a straw in your mouth, so to speak this performance is a great achievement. And that's quite extraordinary. I am very, very impressed by Mr Jordan today. We have been supporting the myCOPD-Challenge from the very beginning. We were there right from the start and I have to say, I see a continuous development in the performance of Mr Jordan, which today once again he really topped. And that really impressed me. We will continue to support Mr Jordan in his future projects, whatever that may be and we are already looking forward to the next joint Challenges. All the best again Mr Jordan and chapeau!

Felix Wallner: We support the project from the very beginning and I really have to say, well if there are more Challenges to come, we will definitely be there. It's great, how you can change the perspective and also the awareness on this common disease and we, as one of the largest interventional forms of treatment from emphysema, which is part of COPD, are of course on board. And that's why it's also very important for us to support this campaign here.

Eberhard Jordan: Events like this would be unthinkable without sponsors. Here I would like to thank all the sponsors who have been funding these events for years sincerely and I really look forward every year to seeing these ladies and gentlemen and have a toast with them knowing, that the message has gone through and thank you for that!

Eberhard Jordan: I hope you enjoyed this video. We always try very hard to make interesting videos. Of course I would be very happy if you like and share them or just spread the word so that the awareness of COPD reaches a broader public. Thank you.