Liz Lynne praises George Coller Memorial Fund's work during visit to Great Barr School

4.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 19th May 2004

West Midlands Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Liz Lynne visited St Marks School in Great Barr to meet Children who took part in an Art competition for the George Coller Memorial Fund.

The Fund was set up by Kim Douglas after her son George Coller died of asthma when he was just three years old. Since then Kim has dedicated her life to help inform people, especially Children about asthma to stop what happened to George happening to other families.

Liz who suffers from severe Asthma herself has taken a keen interest in the Charity and met today with Kim and George-o-sauras, the charity's mascot, at St Marks school to help raise awareness of the illness which blights so many children's lives in Britain.

Speaking following the event, Liz said:

"As an asthma sufferer myself I am delighted that there is a campaign to promote better understanding of asthma amongst schoolchildren. It is important that we educate both those who have the condition and those who don't about how it can affect people's lives.

"Kim Douglas has shown remarkable courage and determination to make sure other families do not suffer a similar tragedy to the one she suffered, and that the public and especially children become better informed about Asthma.

"I very much support Kim's aim to have all school nurses given asthma training as soon as possible. There has to be someone at a school that a child can talk to about their condition.

"According to recent reports doctors are now treating 20,000 new cases of asthma each week and 75,000 emergency hospital admissions each year. Asthma is also the cause of 1500 deaths in the UK every year.

"Children in the UK are more likely to suffer from asthma than anywhere else in the World. The Government though, has sat back and watched this unfold without trying to tackle the problem.

"Asthma sufferers like myself quite rightly feel neglected by the Government. It has prioritised areas like heart disease, cancer and diabetes at the expense of respiratory diseases.

"It is time the Government looked more at preventing illnesses. We can only stop asthma in children when we know what has caused the dramatic rise in the last twenty years. The Government must allocate more resources in to researching asthma and finding out how we can stop the rise in cases especially amongst children."

ENDS