Donations
Click here to make a donation
Asthma is Australia’s most widespread chronic health problem. It is a major cause of school absenteeism, child emergency department attendance and admission to hospital. Making a donation to the Asthma Foundation of SA will help us to deliver vital services to South Australians who experience asthma and other chronic respiratory health conditions. The Asthma Foundation of SA does not receive any government support and we rely on the generosity of South Australians.
No donation is too small. Your support will mean we can continue providing services such as education and asthma emergency management training and fund important research projects investigating the causes of asthma.
By international standards, the prevalence of asthma in Australia is relatively high. About 2 million Australians have current asthma. In 2006, 402 Australians including 45 South Australians, died from asthma representing a dramatic increase of 60.5% compared to 2004 figures. The need for research and a better understanding of asthma is vital. Thank you for your support.
Our stories
Last year we had contact with many people whose stories provide a glimpse into the seriousness of asthma in South Australia.
• “I felt so nervous. I couldn’t even yell for help. I tried to take little breaths but no air was coming through. It’s the scariest situation I have ever lived through. You think you’ll die, because if you can’t breathe, you die”.
• “One Saturday, my son had a sniffle, and by Sunday night we were in an ambulance with him struggling to breathe, as a simple cold triggered his asthma which took hold of his airways and started shutting them down”.
• “He started to cough, but he always does, so I didn’t worry at first. Then suddenly he got worse. My son went downhill so quickly that I didn’t know what to do. It was really scary when he couldn’t breathe. I think any mother would panic seeing that her child cannot breathe”.
• “When I first heard about anaphylaxis I was shocked, even the word is frightening. But when my daughter had her first attack I was panicked. It was just a tiny nut she touched and that was enough. She was all swollen with red spots all around her body - and then she had trouble breathing. In the ambulance, I couldn’t stop crying looking at my little girl like that”.
Help us
We realise there are many financial demands on people and businesses but invite you, if you are considering offering support, to think for a few moments about the physical and emotional demands on those who face the reality of the everyday struggle with respiratory illness and how much difference even small donations make to our capacity to assist. Every individual can make a difference, personally.