Asthma puppet show raises awareness

Three youngsters from Heron Bay Primary School played out the colourful production ‘Once Upon a Breath’ last week, with the help of asthma nurse Jennifer Wilson.

The children had given up their lunch hours to practice the show, which features a saxophone-playing wolf with asthma.

The event was organized by the charity Open Airways and aims to educate children about asthma.

Liz Boden, head of Open Airways, said: “The children absolutely love the puppet show.

“After the show, Nurse Jen runs through all the key points and the hall is full of children with their hands up, eager to answer the questions about the story.”

At the end of the show at Heron Bay, Open Airways launched their new Action Asthma book for children with asthma.

Mrs. Boden wrote the book herself and The Continental Society of Bermuda sponsored the project.

She said: “The children who have already seen the book are really excited about it and we look forward to distributing it throughout the island.

“The aim of the book is to help young children with asthma.

“We already have many leaflets, flyers and books and a website for older students and adults, but we felt it was time to have a book especially for the young children to support our island-wide asthma education programme in the schools.”

One in five children in Bermuda has asthma — which is one of the highest levels in the world.

Mr. DeSilva said: “This is why it is so important to keep our population youth informed from a young age about how to best cope with asthma and also to keep reinforcing the simple message that ‘the goal is control’ — no one need suffer with asthma.”

“Asthma is treatable,” said the Minister.