We've put up a small review from Patty's short show & autograph signing Thursday night in Atlanta, GA - and some pics are now up in the gallery! (And we'll have Flat Patty's blog updated shortly!)

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Daybreak USA aired an interview with Patty yesterday morning about Drive4COPD - they've posted the audio on youtube since it was something she called in for:

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If you missed Patty on Good Day Atlanta, yesterday morning they now have her interview up on their website.



And, we'll have up pics and a review from Patty's show/event sometime over the weekend!

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LAWRENCEVILLE - For country songstress Patty Loveless, encouraging others to get screened for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - a serious condition that affects a person’s ability to breathe - is personal.

Loveless’ sister Dottie, who encouraged the Grammy Award winner to pursue music, died from emphysema, one of two types of COPD, in 1996 at the age of 48.

COPD is the fourth-leading cause of death for Americans and kills more people every year than breast cancer and diabetes combined.

“I had no idea what this disease was and how debilitating it is,” Loveless said. “The people that it’s affecting, they’re saying like 24 million people in America are possibly walking around with a form of this disease and only half know it.”

Through her work with DRIVE4COPD, a public health initiative to screen as many Americans at risk for COPD as possible, Loveless hopes to change that startling statistic. The Atlanta resident will perform a free concert today at Discover Mills Mall in an effort to encourage Gwinnett residents and those in the surrounding area to come out and get screened for COPD.

“I’ve seen first-hand what it can do to a person’s body, watching my sister gasp for every breath, raising herself up out of bed to just take a breath and at one time remembering her being so full of life and knowing what she used to do,” Loveless said. “She was an amazing dancer and an amazing singer. It just broke my heart to see her gasp for every breath.

“That was hard,” Loveless said. “I’m 53 years old and it just really hurt to see her so young, to not be able to make it from her bedroom into the kitchen without holding onto the walls, the counter, the kitchen cabinet, that’s how bad it can get.”

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Patty Loveless might not have four No. 1 country hits if not for her big sister Dottie Ramey

Dottie was a country singer when Patty was still in grammar school, looking on, amazed and inspired, when Dottie sang at clubs in eastern Kentucky, performing with their brother Roger as the Swingin’ Rameys.

Later, Patty watched helplessly as the sister with the beautiful voice strained to catch a single breath. “She had to raise up off the bed and try to grasp for air,” said Loveless, from her home near Cartersville. “It’s almost like trying to breathe through a straw.”

Dottie had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disorder that would steal her breath and then her life.

The pain of losing a sister who was 48 to COPD drives Loveless to help raise awareness of the condition, which kills more people than breast cancer and diabetes combined.

Today Loveless is part of a quartet of well-known personalities in a "race team" driving a nationwide campaign to underscore the dangers of COPD. Loveless, NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner and football great Michael Strahan are each trying to recruit their fans to take a five-question screener and determine their risk for the condition.

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