Tameside mum asks for action on asthma as children go back to school

A Tameside mum is calling on parents and teachers to make sure they understand how to use inhalers properly to manage their children’s asthma this September.

Nationally, this time of year usually sees a rise in asthma attacks when children return to school after the summer holidays.

Tameside has the country's highest rate of hospital admissions for asthma in young people, with more than double the national average.

Eight-year-old Ellie-May Pickett had struggled with asthma since she was just nine months old. She was given both a blue and brown inhaler by her GP, but the asthma attacks continued.

Although Ellie-May’s mum, Emma, had been diagnosed with asthma herself as a child, she admits she knew “very little” about the condition when her daughter was first diagnosed. Ellie-May’s asthma was much more severe, and trips to Tameside Hospital were a frequent occurrence.

“It just got progressively worse,” says Emma, “To the point where every month she was in hospital needing steroids, antibiotics, nebulisers, oxygen…

“We were staying in hospital for over a week at a time and all the doctors on the ward knew her. She missed quite a lot of school.”

Because Ellie-May had been admitted to the hospital so many times, her case was flagged by hospital staff. She was referred to Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust’s specialist children’s respiratory nurse, Amy Brooke, whose advice has proved invaluable.

“Amy told me the right way to use the inhaler – the techniques to use and when to use it,” Emma says.

“She explained what the inhalers actually do to the body. So, you use the brown inhaler every day to keep the airways open. But the blue one just opens the airways for a short time during an attack.”

In February of this year, the hospital provided Ellie-May with a new inhaler. This ‘turbohaler’ can be used both to prevent and relieve asthma attacks, and Emma says it has made a real difference to her daughter’s health.

“Since she started using that inhaler, she’s done so much better. She hasn’t been admitted to hospital since.

“And in school, she was missing out on PE lessons because it was too much running. But now they’re letting her join in more. She might not do the full session, but it’s an improvement from when she couldn’t do any of it at all.”

Now, Emma is urging other parents and teachers to learn how to correctly use inhalers.

“School didn't know how to use it, so I had to explain it to them,” she says. “Luckily they have picked it up really well, and Ellie-May has the inhaler in school once a day just to help her keep the asthma under control.”

Emma also worked with children’s respiratory nurse Amy to put together an asthma action plan to help manage Ellie-May’s condition.

“We printed off quite a few of them so I could give them to the school, my work and other family members in case they need to look after her at any point. So now everyone knows what to do if she has an attack.”