Every penny helps victims like Abbey

Sep 30 2008 by The Journal

A COUPLE whose daughter suffered from severe breathing difficulties have spoken of the potential impact of a Journal-backed appeal to raise funds for a new childhood respiratory department in the region.

Abbey Lowdon, six, has chronic obliterative bronchiolitis, which when severe restricts her breathing and, for more than a year as a toddler, left her in need of 24-hour oxygen treatment.

Doctors were initially unsure as to what was wrong with Abbey and carried out tests for cystic fibrosis, cancer and various other conditions.

As she has grown, the severity of her problems has lessened and she will now only see a specialist once a year.

But as her parents Graeme and Wendy, of Princes Street, Corbridge, Northumberland, explained, there was a period when the future for Abbey, a pupil at the village’s first school, was extremely unclear.

“When she was very young, we didn’t know what the prognosis was,” said Graeme, chief executive officer of Newcastle-based internet provider Nomad Digital.

“Now she does everything a normal six-year-old does which, from our point of view, is fantastic because we really didn’t know how it was going to pan out.

“Everywhere we went, we would have to take oxygen cylinders with us. She would be fine and then all of a sudden would be struggling for breath and they would be hooking her up to all these machines.”

Graeme and Wendy are both trustees of the Puffin Appeal, which is aiming to raise £2m for the respiratory department at the new children’s hospital on the site of Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Wendy, 43, said: “We wanted to get involved because to bring everything under one roof will make a massive difference.

“There is a good service in Newcastle at the moment and people like Dr David Spencer do a fantastic job but, with the money raised in this appeal, it can be so much better.”

Graeme, also 43, said a significant number of contributions had been made by Journal readers to the appeal since it was launched three months ago.

“I would just like to thank Journal readers for their donations. It doesn’t matter how much people give, it’s the fact that someone has taken the time to do it.

“On behalf of everyone involved in the appeal, I would like to get the message back to them that the money is going to help a great deal.

“And the thing about the Puffin Appeal is that any money which is donated is going to help for a long time to come.”

The couple’s only other child, Dan, who is almost two, has also suffered some breathing difficulties, but not on the same scale as his sister.

“There will be a baby born every day up here who is going to have a problem with their breathing,” Graeme said.

“What we have realised is that there has been a relatively small amount of research done into respiratory problems.

“We can end up with a facility where people can discover more about lung problems and help families in our position in the future.”