This World Asthma Day (3 May) Heartlands Hospital patient, Katrina Harris reassures other asthmatics that having severe asthma doesn’t have to hold them back after tackling 16 half-marathons and her first full marathon.
Forty-five -year old Katrina Harris could barely move due to the severity of her asthma just a couple of years ago. However thanks to intensive treatment from the Birmingham Regional Severe Asthma Service (BRSAS) based at Heartlands, and despite the odds, Katrina has achieved more than she could ever have hoped for, running over 235 miles in the last 18 months.
With two teenage sons who also have asthma, Katrina travels from Somerset to Heartlands once every three months for treatment. Katrina said: “I had problems with my breathing as a child and it got worse and worse. It changed for the worse in 2009 when I got flu. My lungs were sticky and I got more infections. I found this came and went in stages. A few years ago it was so bad I couldn’t walk; I was in a hell of a state and almost gave up hope. I was out of breath and kept getting infections.
“I started medication and physio four times a day. I also joined a gym and started to swim. At first I could only do two lengths of the pool, now I can do 70. I started running with my partner who already runs to show my sons that whatever you have got, you can work with it and don’t take no for an answer. It was a slow start but I now have better lung capacity, I don’t get as many infections and my lungs are clearer. I did my first marathon in January 2016. It was a celebration as it’s the first January in a long time I’ve not been hospitalised, so I decided to go for it.
“I can now say my life has been turned around. It was painful to do the running at first but it could be worse if I didn’t. I could be in a wheelchair with oxygen and I wouldn’t want to go down that route. The doctors and physios have been fantastic.”
Heartlands Hospital respiratory consultant, Dr Adel Mansur said: “Katrina is a great example to patients to show what can be achieved with good management of their condition. This is fantastic news; the team is delighted to hear how well Katrina is doing.”
Around 300 million people around the world suffer from asthma, a chronic disease of the lungs that makes breathing difficult. Held this year on 3r May, World Asthma Day is an annual event organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma to improve asthma awareness and care.
BRSAS attracts referrals from across the UK. Providing care for just under 1,000 patients, the BRSAS adopts a multidisciplinary approach to treat people who have some of the most severe and difficult-to-treat forms of asthma to help them manage their conditions, reduce the likelihood of them having life-threatening asthma attacks, and improve their asthma control so patients can live as normal a life as possible.
