Balloons & Dancing Raise Asthma Awareness
Asthma Awareness Week

Impromptu dancing and exercise will highlight asthma awareness in the lead up to the Asthma Foundation’s annual Balloon Day next month.

Hilary Croft, Manager Nelson Asthma Society, says the Dance 4 Asthma campaign focuses on kids dancing to help the 600,000 kiwis with asthma. She says in the Nelson Tasman region around 3,800 children under 15 have asthma.

As part of Dance 4 Asthma in Nelson, Peta Spooner dancers are performing in Fashion Island, on Wed 2 May at lunchtime and impromptu fun dancing will take placeoutside Farmers on Friday 4 May.

Hilary Croft says regular exercise of any sort is good for health, but it can be difficult if you can’t breathe well. To assist there’s a new exercise session being launched during asthma awareness week.

“There’s a new BBC or Better Breathing Club starting in Richmond to teach people appropriate exercises and movements they can practice and do at home,” Hilary says. “The class also provides emotional support and information from trained professionals—and there’re refreshments afterwards.”

The BBC is at 11am -12.15pm, Wednesday 2 May at the Senior Citizens Room (behind Age Concern). Classes are also held in Nelson and Motueka. A $10 membership covers classes for the year or alternatively it is $2 a session.

The Asthma Foundation’s Asthma Awareness Week runs from 30 April to 6 May, with Balloon Day on Friday, 4 May. One in four children in New Zealand struggle to blow up a balloon due to asthma, which is why the week features balloons.
The Nelson Asthma Society will have displays and manned tables with free advice and resources in Motueka, Stoke, Richmond Mall and in Nelson during the week. People will also have the opportunity to take a quick and simple test to see if their asthma is under control. Hilary encourages anyone with asthma to work with their health professionals, have an asthma management plan, use their preventers regularly and to get a free ‘flu vaccination.
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ENDS

Asthma Facts
• One in six New Zealand adults and one in four of our children experience asthma symptoms. (Adding up to more than 600 000 Kiwis.)
• Asthma is the most common cause of admission to hospital for children.
• Hospitalisation rates for asthma have more than doubled in the past 30 years.
• Hospital admissions are twice as common for Maori as for non-Maori.
• Maori and Pacific Island children with asthma tend to have more severe asthma.
• Studies have linked socio-economic disadvantage with difficulty in accessing primary health care needs, leading to hospital admission for asthma.
Ministry of Health figures show that in 2010/2011 it cost an estimated $1,263 a night to treat a 0 – 19-year-old patient in hospital for asthma, an increase on the 2009/2010 figure. With 3,156 hospital admissions last year, that’s a cost of nearly $4 million every year. Of these 3,000 admissions, 73% are for children under 4 years of age

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