"Experiences from Sheffield Breathe Easy group"

**On 25th February 2015, the Sheffield Breathe Easy group invited Sheffield CCG to hear about their experiences of services locally. Members live with a variety of respiratory conditions including COPD and asthma. The quotes below are in their words. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their time, frankness and help with developing the Sheffield Respiratory Strategy.**

“Sometimes I do housework and sometimes I don’t. You’ve got learn to let things slide occasionally. It’s easy to get down sometimes. ”

“About twice a year I get a letter and I go for a blow thing at the doctors. She sees my record from last time and she said recently I’ve got a bit better and the only thing that’s different is the singing! ”

“Nutritious food – 5 a day, your vegetables and plenty of sleep helps me. ”

“Pulmonary rehab at Graves was great and was the starter. It’s a six week course and they check your pulse and blood pressure every time. ”

“I went on pulmonary rehab following a referral from my GP. They told me I’d got COPD and that was the trigger. ”

“Neither my GP or my hospital consultant informed me of any pulmonary rehab services. I was referred by a colleague as I already knew about these services from the work I do as a health care professional” Informing and updating the hospital specialist nurses, consultants and GP’s may help to increase the number of referrals to pulmonary rehab, SIV activities and the singing group. ”

“I was referred to exercise from the chest clinic at the hospital. ”

“When I go for my MOT every year I have my blood taken and then I go back a week later and they say I’m OK. Why don’t they do spirometry then? I’ve found out about other tests for people over 65 from a shopping mall – I reckon the annual check could include a lot more. ”

“I’ve had a couple of doses of pneumonia. I was a smoker but I packed up 15 years ago but I had a scan and they said I’d got COPD and emphysema. He asked when I’d last seen the asthma nurse and I said never. Since then, I’ve never looked back. ”

“I have a respiratory nurse specialist and she’s really helpful. I can talk to her in-between appointments too. ”

“The respiratory nurse said I’d only got it very slightly and I could stop it getting worse. Since I’ve been referred to Graves I’ve noticed a difference – at first when I’d walk to Morrisons in beautiful weather it’d take 40 minutes to get there and now I can do it in 20 minutes each way. ”