Asthma won't stop me
By
Hayley Coombs
My name is Hayley. I suffer from asthma attacks and use inhalers. I decided to create a storybook to educate young children about asthma, and the different symptoms and experiences that people can go through. I wanted to show that asthma can be a severe illness, but that all the medicines and machines are nothing to be scared of. They can actually save lives. I made this book with the help of Fixers, a wonderful charity that gives young people a voice.
This book reflects the view / experience / opinion of a young person, and should not be relied upon or used as a substitute for formal (medical or other) advice.
Asthma won't stop me
By Hayley Coombs
Once upon a time there was a girl named Sophia. Sophia had asthma, so she spent every night
coughing
and
coughing and
coughing
!
And she never got any sleep.
Sophia had an inhaler. She was meant to use it every night before bed to make her feel better.
? Mr Be ar
But she didn’t like it. It was a weird shape and she didn’t like all the bits that moved about.
She found lots of things scary about asthma inhalers.
Some had
BIG its, b
some
t a sted a bit funny...
as big Nearly ear! B as Mr
There were loads of different machines and medicines that Sophia didn’t understand.
Push
bit
...and they came in
felourrse. nt difco
?
g bit
Movin
green Why
It was the same at the hospital and the doctors too. There was lots of weird stuff!
Sophia didn’t like all these different things. She decided that...
“They were weird!”
Weird
thing!
But Sophia really wanted to sleep! In fact, when Sophia DIDN’T use her inhaler, there were lots of things she COULDN’T do…
s l l e m s , y l l e sm sneezy, made her
Running
y, made her wheez
cats made her uneasy... Fur all ergy
All these things made it really hard for Sophia to breathe.
Without her inhaler, Sophia just ended up
ng coughi
and
coughing and
coughing!
“What should I do, Mr Bear?�
? But with her inhaler, Sophia could breathe and run and play and sleep really easily.
So Sophia decided it was time to be brave. She picked up the inhaler, took a deep breath, pressed the puff‌
PUFFFFF!!!
...then she stopped coughing.
Z
Because asthma won’t stop me!
ZZ
Z
ZZ
Sophia told herself. Then she and Mr Bear fell peacefully asleep.
This book was created by Hayley (25) from Bath. Hayley has Asthma, and was inspired by her own experiences to educate young children on what Asthma is and how it can affect young people. This book has been produced with the help of Fixers, the campaign that gives young people a voice. --If you want to find out more, please visit: asthma.org.uk blf.org.uk nhs.uk