Once again we successfully ‘booked’ glorious weather to help ensure our second Winchester Race for AAIR was a huge success.
We were delighted this family event has grown with some 650 taking part in the 10k and around 180 children joining in the get Active 4 Asthma fun runs. One bunch of runners even ‘went bananas’ in an effort to raise as much money as possible for AAIR. Despite the hot weather the four girls dressed up in bright yellow banana skins and completed a sponsored 2k to appreciative applause from the crowd. 
Thanks to WADAC for all their fantastic efforts in organising the day and of course special thanks to our sponsors Alton Sports, who provided the winners’ prizes, Waitrose for supplying goodie bags, Hildon Water for the bottled water, Hampshire Chronicle for their invaluable support, Southgate Motors for providing the lead car and Dream FM for their publicity and raffle prize.
Thank you also to Paultons Golf Club, River Park Leisure Centre, Bill and Brea, Foster Denovo, The Screen Cinema, Pandley & Co, La Vista Restaurant and Russ Berrie Toys for donating raffle prizes.
We will let you know how much was raised for AAIR when the final figures are in.

Full results here.

ITV Meridian’s Fred Dinenage joined AAIR to congratulate the talented winners of our poetry competition to mark World Asthma Day today (Tuesday 6th May). 
AAIR had invited anyone touched by asthma to pen a poem describing what asthma means to them. Five winners received prizes worth over £500 courtesy of Waterstones and A & A Business Supplies and had the chance to see their poems displayed in the Above Bar Waterstone store. 
Fred, an AAIR patron, said: “I am delighted to be presenting these awards for a second year. I always admire anyone who can write poetry, and especially those who can write creatively - and sometimes with a lot of humour about such a serious condition as asthma. After enjoying reading these poems it was an honour to meet the writers.”
We were delighted with the response, receiving entries not just from Hampshire but across the country. Competition was particularly tough as many entries were received from members of writing and poetry groups. Thank you to everyone who took part.
AAIR Director Caroline Pope said: “The AAIR Charity is working hard not just to fund research into the causes and treatments of asthma but also to raise awareness of the potentially fatal affects of this condition. It is estimated 90% of people who die annually from asthma could have been saved with the right treatment. We hope these poems will help in this campaign to raise awareness of this vital cause.”

Read the five winning poems here:

WINNERS: 
Overall winner: Janet Joyce (Itchen, Southampton)

Over 18 category 
1st runner-up: Becky Whittington (Fetcham, Surrey)
2nd Runner-up: Lisa Brown (Highcliffe, Dorset)

Under 18 category
1st Runner Up: Bethany Knight, 11 (Bitterne, Southampton)
2nd runner-up: Ellie Hendricks, 11 (Itchen, Southampton)

The first World Asthma Day took place in1998 and was celebrated in more than 35 countries in conjunction with the first World Asthma Meeting. The day has now become one of the world’s most important asthma awareness and education events with almost 60 countries taking part.
This year’s theme is “You Can Control Your Asthma” and encourages governments, health care professionals, patients, and the general public to work together to improve asthma control.

A person’s asthma is under control when he or she has:

• No (or minimal) asthma symptoms. 
• No waking at night due to asthma.
• No (or minimal) need to use “reliever” medication.
• The ability to do normal physical activity and exercise.
• Normal (or near-normal) lung function test results.
• No (or very infrequent) asthma attacks.

Why don’t you hold your own WAD fundraising event, such as a coffee morning or car boot sale in aid of AAIR?

World Asthma Day 2007 participants in Allahabad, India, with a banner announcing an asthma education and detection camp offered by the Tandon Chest & Sleep Centre. Over 174 activities took place in at least 57 countries around the world for World Asthma Day 2007!

Photographs courtesy of
Shevki Yusuf.

With thanks to our sponsors:

Click here for photos of the night!

Word of this year’s Festival of Dance line-up must have spread as the show sold out a week in advance with a long waiting list for tickets! 
The third AAIR Festival of Dance was the most varied yet with appearances from ten very different dance troupes, songs from an X Factor band and a ‘Strictly Come Dancing-style’ performance - ALL hosted by the wonderful John Byrnes.
The show, which took place at the Point on Friday March 7th, included everything from Swing, Argentine Tango and Street to Oriental and Contemporary. As usual the dazzling Kirsty Blair McCarthy School rounded off the show with an electric ‘Lord of the Dance-style’ performance of Irish dancing which left the audience spellbound.
Former Strictly Come Dancing professional and world dance champion, John Byrnes, said: “This was a wonderful evening. There was an extremely wide & varied spectrum of dance styles from hip hop to ballroom to folk dancing, which myself & the audience thoroughly enjoyed. A great night indeed!”
Brave Wave 105 Radio Presenter John Clayton took on the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ Challenge and performed a waltz after just 4 hours of rehearsals! John said: “What a great night! It's always good value and I especially enjoyed the challenge of learning the Waltz this year. I think I probably proved that although things can go wrong on the night, it's how you recover than matters. Here's to next year then - it will be even better!"
The up-and-coming Hampshire girl band Afrodisiac showed us how they impressed the judges during the current series of TV’s X Factor, belting out four great numbers. 
Peter Robertson of Condor office Solutions, said: “We are absolutely delighted to sponsor such an exciting and memorable event for the third year - particularly as the money raised from the evening goes to such a good cause.” 
AAIR Director Caroline Pope said: “This event just keeps getting better. The variety of acts and enthusiasm of the performers never ceases to amaze me. I'm already thinking about next year!”
The evening has raised a fantastic £2,667.28.

Read All About It In The Daily Echo!

Did you know that our world-acclaimed asthma and allergy department also support research into COPD’s (chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases) such as bronchitis and emphysema.
One of our leading experts is Professor Ratko Djukanović’s. The theme running through all his research is questioning what makes these conditions so severe and how both established and new treatments/drugs work. Prof. Djukanović has also headed a major research programme into identifying genes in COPD’s. 
Please support World COPD Day which aims to raise awareness about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and improve its care throughout the world.

What is COPD?

COPD stands for “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease”

• Chronic means it won’t go away.
• Obstructive means partly blocked.
• Pulmonary means in the lungs.
• Disease means sickness.

COPD is a common lung disease that blocks the airways, making breathing difficult.
COPD is usually caused by smoking or exposure to fumes or very dusty places.
Symptoms of COPD include coughing, bringing up phlegm or mucus, and getting short of breath. 
If you are over 40 and have these symptoms, go see your doctor and ask about COPD!
Many people have COPD and don’t know it. Some think their symptoms are just a natural part of the aging process.
However, COPD is a life-threatening disease that will get worse if not treated.
COPD can be treated! Although there is no cure, doctors can help you feel better and slow damage to your lungs.
The earlier a diagnosis is made, the more effective the treatment will be.
COPD can be prevented! If you are a smoker, quitting smoking is the best way to prevent COPD or stop its progression. It is never too late to quit smoking!

World COPD Day 2007 is organized by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (www.goldcopd.org).
It is further supported by the International COPD Coalition (www.internationalcopd.org) and WONCA.
Financial support is provided by unrestricted educational grants from: Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Mitsubishi Pharma, Novartis, Nycomed, and Pfizer.

Lots of laughs at AAIR’S 3rd Celebrity Question of Sport Supper.
Sponsored by Uppa Class property Services and Original 106

This was our third Celebrity Question of Sport Supper and it was our biggest and most successful yet.

The event, which took place at St Mary’s Stadium, has grown in size each year - from 90 people in 2005 to more than 200 this year. The amount raised has also doubled, final figures are not in yet but we are hoping to reach an impressive £5,000, which is fantastic. 

We were delighted popular comedian Mike Osman hosted the proceedings, his hilarious mix of jokes, impressions and cheeky (some very cheeky!) banter proved a huge success with the crowd. 

No one seemed too worried about the results but for the record Shaun Udal’s cricketing team came up trumps, winning the title for the first time with team mates Gladstone Small and Paul Prichard. Gladstone joked he was the reason for the victory. “Shaun asked me to join his team because he knew I have always wanted to play on a Hampshire team and of course I think he was looking for a ringer, especially after his performance last year when they lost!” On a more serious note Gladstone added “I know how important good health is so I’m happy to do anything I can to help AAIR and wish the Charity all the very best.” 

Saints legends Lawrie McMenemy, Francis Benali and Andrew Surnam couldn’t quite pull-off the home victory they were hoping for coming in third. Francis added: “Mike Osman was fantastic as always and this was a great evening which is a lot different to the usual charity functions. But the whole point of this event was about raising money for AAIR and I know all the teams were happy to be able to help.”

The Sports Journos, which included Sky’s Mike Wedderburn, Original 106 Radio’s Shaun Aquilina and The Daily Echo’s Simon Carter came a very respectable second. 

AAIR patron Shaun Udal summed-up the evening: “Fantastic event, which just gets bigger and better each year. This was definitely the best one yet. Well done AAIR.”

AAIR would like to say a tremendous thank you to all the celebrities who gave their time free of charge, Ian Wilson of Reg Aardvark Productions who put in hours of work to write the quiz, Saints Event Management which ensured the food was wonderful and the evening ran like clockwork and of course to our sponsors Uppa Class Property Services and Original 106 Radio. Also thanks to everyone who came along and those who kindly donated auction and raffle prizes.

Click here to view photographs of this brilliant night!

"Thank you very much for the photos. We enjoyed the run very much it was a great event and very very well organised. Well done to all the team that was involved!!!!!!!!!!"
Hans Michael

Group Picture of Winners from L TO R
Front row: Madeline Vosser, Rebecca Black, Louise Damen, Sandra Bowers,
Sara Rhimes, Glynis Sheppard.
Back row Godfrey Rhimes, Chris Thomson, Andy Greenleaf, Prof Stephen Holgate,
Caroline Pope, Tony Lambert, Alastair Ewing, Michael Welland

Thanks to our runners: 
Anna Turnvey (pictured), Amarij Bal, Donna Harman, Helen Dunlop, Ben Nicholas, Meeta Pandey, James Spackman, Hanif Karachinwalla, Annette Hayden, Funso Fagbonhunka, Damian McLaughlin, Claire Bryant, Giulio Alfano, Nicholas Lazarus, Kirsten Guthrie, Carl Davenport, Joe Bates.

AAIR Sunshine Stroll

While the rest of you were enjoying a lazy lie-in on Saturday 23rd June a group of faithful AAIR supporters joined us for a beautiful not-so-sunny Sunshine Stroll. Decked out in shorts and T shirts (with waterproofs at the ready!) we set us off full of enthusiasm from Martin Downs Nature Reserve Car park and there began a really lovely Saturday.
Lots of friendly chatter was regularly halted by breath-taking views across Wiltshire and Hampshire, chocolate box villages and much excitement to see wild garlic and orchids. A few drops of rain, fortunately it was warm rain, made the occasional appearance but actually only made the event more fun as we dodged in and out of wooded paths. We have already had requests for another LONGER walk later in the year. We’ll let you know!
Special thanks to all who joined us and kindly sponsored our walkers and to our fantastic guide (and comfort-break organiser) Andy Hopkinson from The Ramblers Association. We have raised £600, with some money still to come in. With a special little thank you to all the tango dancers of Bristol for helping Eduardo raise an amazing £120 in sponsorship.

"We just wanted to contact you to say how much we enjoyed the Sunshine Stroll and how nice it was to meet you all. It was great to be led by an experienced guide, usually when we do it ourselves we end up hopelessly lost, have a huge row, and go home not speaking!! We hope you made loads of money, if we are in the area again we will keep a look out for more walks to join. We're sorry we held you up at the start, but we definitely thought it was a really worthwhile event. Thanks again for welcoming 2 strangers so warmly."
Tony & Carmel - that strange pair from Kent!