Dad’s challenge for Asthma UK
THE father of a brave young boy with asthma will be taking on a tough challenge in aid of a charity close to his family’s heart.
Trevor Jennings, who lives on New Lane in Oswaldtwistle, is taking on the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge to raise money for Asthma UK.
Trevor’s son Ethan has had to go to hospital 17 times in the last two years, including being admitted to the dependency unit due to the severity of his asthma.
According to the charity, as many as three people die from the condition every day in the UK, which Trevor says is far too many for this day and age.
Trevor, who works as an insurance advisor, said: “At 13 or 14 months, we nearly lost him but the doctors gave him magnesium sulphate.
“As a parent, it’s the last thing you want to see, with your son hooked to a drip and having to have nebulisers every 13 minutes.”
Trevor, 38, says it was hard for him and his wife Leanne as new parents - they were inexperienced and had learn about the condition as they went along.
He said: “We were learning on the job - we’re more experienced now but it doesn’t happen overnight.”
Ethan, who is now three and a half years old, attends a nursery but is still regularly seen by a consultant at Royal Blackburn Hospital and takes regular medication for his asthma - which needs constant management.
Trevor decided to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks as he has completed the event before and wanted to lead a group of people who could all raise money for Asthma UK.
As well as raising vital funds for the charity, he is hoping to raise awareness about the condition.
Trevor said that he and his family have even had to move house, in part, due to Ethan’s condition and the environment in which they lived.
He said: “I think there’s a public lack of awareness about something that is actually more common now than it ever was.
“We lived in a old terrace in Hapton and moved to Oswaldtwistle.
“We’re lucky that we’ve been able to do that but since we moved over a year ago, Ethan hasn’t been in hospital all that time.”
The family are hoping that as Ethan gets stronger, he will be able to fight off the condition more easily and reduce his medication, but he is not ready for that yet.