Media release from the Asthma Foundation

'A number of New Zealand sports champions and high achievers in entertainment and broadcasting have faced the challenges of living with asthma and some were nearly robbed of their success because of the illness', says the Chief Executive of the Asthma Foundation, Jane Patterson.

Jane was commenting on recent media revelations about English football star David Beckham having asthma.

'About 1 in 5 New Zealanders has asthma - the second highest rate in the world… it's not surprising then that quite a few well known New Zealanders have experience with serious asthma and have had to carefully manage their lives to deal with it on top of all the other training and work they have done to get where they are.

'Jason Wynyard, the champion woodcutter is a perfect example. Jason, who was 2008 Maori sportsman of the year, is simply the best in the world at his game. He has more than 100 world titles. Yet in a competition earlier this year, Jason had an asthma attack in the final stages. It was only through his superb training and good asthma management that he was able to go on and win…no mean feat.

'Casey Williams, the captain of the Silver Ferns, has had her challenges with asthma, but she plays with the best in the world. Casey has supported the Asthma Foundation publicly because she wants the negative effect asthma has in the lives of so many New Zealanders reduced.

'Alice Mason also comes to mind. Alice made an enormous impression in the world of running when she came second in the women's section of the Great Australian Run through the streets of central Melbourne last November, despite being a new-comer to international running.

She beat a Romanian Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist who came sixth and left Australian world cross country champion, Benita Johnson, for dust in fifth place.

Alice says that more research into childhood asthma will mean fewer kids have to go through what she did.

'Sure with good advice and sound management of my asthma, it doesn't get in the way of my running so much now, but it wasn't always that way.'

Jane: ' My point is that asthma impacts negatively on people's lives and it is very common.

'We need to encourage people to manage their asthma better while we also work to continue to improve treatments and ultimately find a cure for this huge burden on our society.'