Letters, contributions and comments sent in to the Advertiser this week.

Tea parties to help charity

Samia al Qadhi, chief executive, Breast Cancer Care, writes:

At Breast Cancer Care, we were devastated to have made the tough decision to reduce our Helpline opening hours earlier this year to make savings, a decision we didn’t take lightly.

As the UK’s only specialist breast cancer support charity, we are here to provide care to anyone who needs it. We saw this more than ever when we faced a huge surge of calls following the recent reports about an IT error which meant that many women in England were not sent their final routine invitation for breast screening.

We are working hard to make sure that the helpline stays available to everyone who needs us, but we can’t do it without your help.

You can support Breast Cancer Care by having an afternoon tea to raise money this July. Simply choose a date and invite friends and family round to enjoy a cuppa with some tasty sandwiches and treats. Breast Cancer Care will provide you with a free kit with everything you need to plan your tea.

All money raised will enable the charity to continue to be there for the 691,000 people living with breast cancer in the UK today.

Order your free fundraising kit at breastcancercare.org.uk/cuppa or call 0300 100 4442.

Keep up asthma medicine during school holidays

Dr Andy Whittamore, clinical lead, Asthma UK and a practising GP, writes:

Now that the school summer holidays are just around the corner, it’s easy for health routines to go out of the window as children relax, enjoy the outdoors and get stuck into their favourite hobbies. But Asthma UK is launching a campaign urging parents of children with asthma to make sure they take their usual preventer medicine and keep up a routine over the school break. The medicine builds up over time so will help to protect their child from an asthma attack during the summer holiday and once they return to school.

Every 10 seconds someone has a potentially life-threatening asthma attack in the UK, and three people die from an asthma attack every day. In September, children are nearly three times more likely to be admitted to hospital because of an asthma attack than in August, partly due to seasonal triggers such as cold and flu viruses. If a child hasn’t kept up their preventer medicine routine over the school holidays, they will be at greater risk of reacting to these triggers.

The good news is that by taking a few simple steps, parents can help their child to avoid asthma attacks and enjoy the summer as much as anyone else:

• Keep up your child’s usual preventer medicine routine (usually a brown inhaler)

• Make sure your child has an up-to-date written asthma action plan, which you can download from Asthma UK’s website, and share this with anyone who will be looking after them; as using one means they’re less likely to end up in hospital for their asthma

• Track your child’s asthma symptoms using a diary or a symptom calendar

• Prepare for going back to school by arranging for your child to have an asthma review with their GP or asthma nurse to check your child’s medicines, and make sure your child has spare, in-date reliever inhalers to take into school

We want to reassure parents whose children have asthma that support is available through our nurse helpline. Last year we helped nearly 1,000 parents who called on behalf of their child with asthma.

For information and support visit asthma.org.uk/safersummer