Launching the Malvern Hills trek on World Asthma Day

If you followed Medical Accident Group’s asthma care initiative last year, Laura Widdowson and her son Owen told their story of when Owen was hospitalised due to his near fatal asthma attack when he was just two years old. They also took on the challenge of completing the Couch to 5k challenge, in aid of The George Coller Memorial Fund.

The money raised for the charity went towards:

  • Vital hospital equipment
  • Helped sponsor an asthma helpline
  • Sponsored children with asthma to go on medically supervised holidays
  • Offered help and advice to the families of asthmatics
  • Awareness campaigns concentrating on improving asthma policies within schools
  • Low-cost practical aid in the home for children with asthma (i.e. dust mite covers and filter vacuum cleaners)
  • Sponsoring and supporting school nurses to receive vital asthma training
  • Supplied training to school staff, school nurses, nursery schools, and child minders

Continuing our story of support, and in the spirit of World Asthma Day, Laura and her colleague David White have decided to go that step further by organising a trek across the Malvern Hills.

Asthma in the UK

In the UK, 5.4m people are currently receiving treatment for asthma, equating to 1 in 11 children and 1 in 12 adults.

A new survey of people with severe asthma, conducted by Asthma UK, reveals the devastating effect of the condition on their lives, with nearly half (45%) hospitalised from life-threatening asthma attacks more than 10 times since they were diagnosed.

Of the 253 people who responded, nearly all (96%) said the public doesn’t understand what it’s like to live with the constant unpredictability of severe asthma. Lack of awareness, combined with daily challenging symptoms, means more than two-thirds reported being held back in work or school, with more than two-thirds also saying it affected their social life.
To change this, Asthma UK is launching a wider survey to capture people’s experiences of living with severe asthma. Learn more, here.

The George Coller Memorial Fund

We are happy to be able to support The George Coller Memorial Fund, a Birmingham-based organisation launched in 2000 by Kim Douglas, George Coller’s mother.

George tragically passed away from asthma at the age of three. Ever since, Kim has worked tirelessly to improve healthcare for children with asthma through initiatives that have funded the placement of specialist asthma nurses in local hospitals, sponsored school nurses in taking their asthma diploma, and paid for vital hospital equipment.

Ally Taft, partner with Medical Accident Group, said; “It’s shocking to see how poorly the UK compares to other countries when it comes to asthma care.

“The emotional and practical impact of living with asthma, or caring for a child with asthma, can be overwhelming. By improving access to knowledgeable healthcare professionals and effective equipment, Kim and The George Coller Memorial Fund are helping to ease that burden – and we couldn’t be happier to support them in doing so.”

A donation link for the team’s Malvern Hills trek on Sunday 26 June will be available soon; please keep an eye on our socials and website for updates.

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Meet the Team

David White, Senior Associate (Costs Lawyer)

David brings over 20 years’ experience as a costs lawyer to Medical Accident Group team, providing support to solicitors in all aspects of costs recovery and funding. David has worked for claimants and defendants, as well as insurers and large companies.

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Ally Taft, Head of Clinical Negligence

Starting out as a physiotherapist, Ally embarked on her legal training knowing that she wanted to specialise in clinical negligence from the outset. Now a partner for Medical Accident Group, her experience and medical understanding have stood her and her clients in good stead, combined, as they are, with her determination to seek justice for clients whose lives have been devastated by clinical negligence.

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