“Does anyone here have a puffer”?

Simone and her family were travelling, and they had stopped at a park so the kids could run around and stretch their legs. One of Simone’s young sons started having trouble breathing when Simone realised they had left their puffer and spacer at home.

Simone was forced to ask strangers at the park for help. Fortunately, a woman who had asthma herself went to her home nearby and grabbed her puffer and spacer and brought it back to them.  Thankfully her son improved immediately, and from there the family drove straight to a pharmacy to get a replacement puffer and spacer.

This is one of the moments that has taught Simone what living with asthma actually asks of a family. She has five children, three of them have asthma and three of them have also ended up in emergency.

Their story began with her daughter who started coughing at preschool and was officially diagnosed at five. Simone worked out that pollen was her daughter’s only trigger, which meant her asthma could be managed by treating her allergy symptoms.

Not long after, her oldest son came down with something that looked like nothing much, just another sick child at home. It was only when Simone looked at him properly that she saw his lips had turned blue, and when she asked whether he was finding it hard to breathe, he nodded.

With nothing else on hand she gave him his sister’s reliever, and it seemed to help. At hospital he was diagnosed, and a follow-up with their doctor put him on a preventer. His triggers turned out to be nothing like his sister’s: viruses, colds and physical activity.

By the time her younger son began wheezing with a cold, the family knew exactly what they were looking at.

Much of the learning curve has been practical. Carry the puffer. Carry the spacer. Carry them everywhere, because the day you don’t is the day you are standing in an unfamiliar park asking strangers for help.

These experiences are why Simone joined the board of Asthma Foundation ACT, and later Asthma Australia, where she is now the board representative for the Consumer Advisory Council.

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Our Consumer Advisory Council members share their lived experience to help improve support for people with asthma. Your donation helps Asthma Australia provide information, support and advocacy for the nearly 2.8 million Australians living with asthma.