Video of what asthma feels like
This blog post is by Nicola Baird sharing ideas about thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children. Turns out that London’s air is far more polluted than I thought – and that triggers asthma. Nell,10, goes on screen in “Asthma is scary” to share with you what it feels like to struggle to breathe – and what she’d do if she was Prime Minister to sort it out for all of us. For more info about my book Homemade Kids, with lots of ideas about parenting, click here.
Nell is well at the moment – thanks to the steroid medicine she takes morning and night. But after discovering how polluted the roads are where we live (ie, London), she gave me some quotes about what it feels like, and made a short video (above).
Nell, 10: “To have an asthma attack is incredibly frightening. You don’t want to talk. You want to burst into tears but don’t. The energy is drained from your body. When your asthma is so bad the medicine (puffer) doesn’t work. It’s scary looking at your breathing going down and down. Air pollution is invisible to human eyes, but it’s there and always will be there. But if people stopped using vehicles that pollute our planet Earth, then it might not be there.”
I need to check the figures, but at a meeting in Islington this week it was revealed that our Mayor’s inability to sort out London’s air pollution is going to leave the capital with a fine from the EU of something like £300 million! That’s a crazy sum that could be used to improve public transport, or put towards placing cleaner filters on the diesel engines so beloved – and so polluting – used by London’s buses and black cabs. What ideas do you have for Transport for London or Boris to clean up our filthy air? Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones claims Boris has chosen to use a special glue (dust suppressants) in a bid to make the high pollution levels drop at two key monitoring sites on Marylebone Road and London Bridge. It’s laughable: and hardly sorting out the real problem? More info about it from this site too.
Tags: asthma, asthma video, homemadekids, postaweek2011, what's asthma like
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Homemade Kids 
December 2, 2011 at 9:57 am
From Facebook:
Christopher: “loved Nell’s video, she’s already got my vote as PM”
Penny: It’s cute. Ventolin isn’t steroid based – does she also use the steroid preventer? The man who invented the asthma pump and the whole concept of pumping steroids into the lungs rather than oral steroids was celebrated on radio 4 this week as he died. We are sufferers too so my heart goes out to you all. X
Deborah: Your daughter is going to take life by the horns – she obviously has her parents genes of turning humour and commentary into art. Thomas has got to save my life ten times in four years- I came down with severe asthma at the age of 43. I can’t imagine watching my kids go through it. I finally got it under control with a lung anti-inflammatory I take daily as well as steroids. So sorry to hear – good news is science is progressing.
March 21, 2012 at 3:10 pm
[…] If you need a reminder of what asthma does to kids, and how air quality effects children’s health see this older blog post and 10-year-old Nell’s video here. […]
April 4, 2012 at 9:18 am
More from Facebook (2012)
Jo: that video’s great Nicola! sorry about her attack, it must have been scary. Isla just had ‘viral wheeze’ which is apparently really common but she’s doing good…Some of the doctors seemed to think it related to pollution highs/lows in London… It’s temporary baby asthma; they don’t diagnose asthma in the under 5s as 2/3 of them grow out of it. I’d be interested in any campaigns that are connecting these issues together
Nicola Baird This group offers very detailed campaigning and solutions – link up on twitter too. http://cleanairinlondon.org/
April 12, 2012 at 9:37 am
[…] problems for yourself (by driving) is only making the problem worse for all of us, see info here from my then 10-year-old Nell about air pollution and asthma. So, unless you absolutely love […]
December 3, 2012 at 2:53 pm
[…] Want to read a similar post? See this for a video of what asthma feels like if you are a child. […]