Over one million children have asthma, making it the most common long-term childhood condition in the UK. Alarmingly nearly half of these children report disruptions to their daily activities that could seriously impact their future. In addition, asthma, if severe or not treated correctly can be life threatening. A child is admitted to hospital every 16 minutes. Treatment of asthma is not consistent across the UK and many children do not receive adequate attention, often leading to missed schooling and opportunities for personal development affecting their lives, both present and future. Asthma UK turns away numerous high-quality research projects every year due to lack of funds. With vital additional funds we would be able to make even further progress with significant breakthroughs in medical science. At present we fund nine research projects into childhood asthma to develop treatments for the present and find a cure for the future. 'I’ve always known asthma can kill and nine out of 10 asthma deaths are preventable, but one of that ten aren’t preventable, and I have to accept that Lloyd is that statistic. It’s just so hard to live with. When Lloyd was eight he was in hospital every six weeks with really bad asthma attacks, they would come on very quickly and he would deteriorate very quickly. We would usually have three nights when we would have a registrar, a senior registrar and an SHO constantly with us on the ward to keep his airways open and him out of intensive care. The whole year was like that and at Christmas he was in hospital again with a bad asthma attack, he had a respiratory arrest and a cardiac arrest and he was put on life support.’ Kim, Lloyd’s mum.
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Asthma UK is dedicated to improving the health and well being of people with asthma: We provide information, advice and support services, and work to influence policy affecting people in a range of areas such as health, education and the environment. Asthma UK is also one of the country’s leading funders of asthma research, essential for developing new treatments for people with asthma and a future free from asthma. Asthma is serious: -Three people die because of their asthma everyday. -Only a third of people with asthma get immediate access to an asthma specialist if they have to go to hospital in an emergency. -The UK has one of the highest rates of asthma symptoms in children in the world. -90% of deaths from asthma are preventable. Research is fundamental to our work. If we are to develop new, more effective treatments to control the symptoms of asthma and develop a cure we need to ascertain which research projects are of the highest quality, will have the greatest impact and benefit people with asthma. We do this through our comprehensive peer review process which consists of renowned medical experts from all over the world. The panel reviews funding applications from researchers to shortlist those that are considered to have the greatest impact. We allocate approximately £3 million to research, but we are forced to turn down vital new research every year due to lack of funds. At present we are funding nine research projects into childhood asthma. Our current research includes: -whether taking vitamin supplements in pregnancy influences the development of asthma in children; -improving the tools to perform and interpret lung function tests in children; -efficacy of oral steroids for hospitalised pre-school children; -phenotype characterisation in South Asian and white children.