This is the story of our gorgeous daughter MIa. Mia is the middle of our three beautiful children. She is 11 years old and since 3 months of age has been fighting the on going battle against the horrible disease that is called brittle asthma.

 'Brittle asthma' a form of severe asthma that can cause a change in health from being fairly well controlled, to being poorly controlled in a very short space of time. Since early on in life, Mia has suffered the constant battle with this, and on a daily basis finds herself being desperate for breath and in need of her inhalers nebulisers or even hospitalisation.

Mia daily has to cope with relatively frequent asthma attacks, and in between acute attacks may have ongoing symptoms such as coughing and wheezing which often require quite large doses of medication to keep her Asthma under control.

Mia is currently under regular assessments  with the local hospital (LRI) and GP's however with constant admissions to the hospital with her attacks, frequent pneumonia battles and her constant fight against this disease, as a family we now feel that the NHS just isnt doing enough to help her and now need your help to get her the support and help she needs.

Mia when she is well, is an average 11 year old little girl who loves her music, friends, creativity, painting  and has an absolute admiration for animals! Years and years of allergy tests show no allergy to pets, fur, hay, straw or mould however her allergy markers are in the thousands in an unknown area ..... something we’re still trying to find out what........ so her passion for animals it helping her mental health and allows Mia to feel Normal! A word loosely used I have to say!

In August last year Mia went into theatre for investigations on the state of her lungs .... as a result it appeared her struggles wouldn’t end there. One of mias lungs had completely collapsed and after numerous attempts at inserting a stent failed she was brought back to recovery to hear the news. As you can imagine mias heart was broken as her thoughts for a normal life were falling before her and to top it off she fell desperately ill with the stafforeous virus resulting in breathing difficulties and a longer stay in hospital on nebuliser, oxygen and IV antibiotics.  Mias recovery was lengthy including physio therapy to move the mucus off the working lung  and mental support to help her manage day to day struggles ..... including walking and managing day to day activities. Following  this  she was suffering with post viral fatigue and barely had the energy to do anything. Mia would sleep most of the day and found going to school a struggle. (Nodding off on the classroom tables is not my idea of her learning and building a good education) 

Mia then started high school which to her seemed like the next biggest challenge. And that it was. Not only was she leaving behind her friends and teachers who ‘just understood’ she then had the task (as did I) of learning her peers and new teachers how serious her condition was.  
After one teacher made her do the bleep test in a PE lesson .... let’s just say the school were not in good books with the hospital or me as she took very ill very quickly and the teachers reply was ‘ i just didn’t realise how poorly she would get’ ‘ we thought it was just asthma and not that bad’ not that bad they say how wrong they were!!!  .... after all it was only a bleep test’ not only did this damage mias self esteem she also suffered so hateful comments from her peers because she just could do it and a week at home recovering!!! 

So now in 2020 Mia is on a constant stream of antibiotics and steriods to help with her chest infections and regulary uses a steriod inhaler and ventolin. She is now on a daily dose of antibiotic which thankfully is keeping much of the bigs at bay. We have a nebuliser for her but over the years have had to fight to get the nebules for it as paediatritions reported she shouldnt need them. However after her taking poorly very quickly a few years ago and the ambulance taking over an hour to get to her we demanded this was the only window we would have to get her the help she needed in hospital, by using the nebuliser either on route or until the ambulance arrived. This was reluctantly agreed , but we now find this is needed more regular as the hospital just arent doing enough to help her control her condition.

 Day to day life is a constant battle for MIa that most don't recognise.
"Its just asthma” people will often say however, Asthma can be a debilitating, life threatening condition and in Mia's case with brittle asthma, attacks can be frequent and come on with no warning and leave her fighting for breathe and dependant upon people around her to get help quickly. In the words of many celebrities lately ‘be kind’ it’s just that simple!!!! 

Please help us raise money for asthma UK to get not only Mia but other children in her condition the help and medical support she needs and raise awareness of the vile condition!