Kick Asthma holiday: Day one

Bright blue skies over Edinburgh as the young people arrived at the fantastic neo-gothic Fettes College for the first of our summer holidays. We are lucky to have missed the rain, which passed harmlessly during the night.

It's our biggest Edinburgh holiday for a few years and we have a mix of new guests and others who have been coming for years. All the young people have asthma, several of them badly, and many have other related health conditions too. We have some excellent volunteer healthcare professionals who will help them keep safe as they enjoy the holiday.

There are no signs of poor health as the children arrive. Within minutes a game of softball has started and I have the first grass stains on my jeans diving for a catch. Half an hour later it's children take on volunteers for a game of football. The volunteers do well for the first ten minutes and then we are overwhelmed in desperate defensive action.

After dinner we play games which help us all to learn each others names and before very long everyone is relaxed and it feels like we have been here several days already. We agree holiday rules together and sign up to them before bedtime. Monday will be a full and busy day starting with a treasure hunt and including a trip to an exclusive swimming pool and a health quiz designed both to be fun and to help children know more about asthma.

Already I can feel muscles I haven't used since last year. 

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