New asthma treatment has 'changed my life'

Mr Birch's symptoms have "considerably eased" since starting the new injection

For many years, Dave Birch was unable to go outside during the winter months, as a cold blast of air would cause him to pass out.

The 60-year-old from Whixall, Shropshire, has late-onset asthma, which is harder to control with typical asthma medications than the asthma diagnosed during childhood.

A year ago, he became one of just 200 people selected to take part in the trial of a new asthma treatment, Benralizumab, that comes in the form of an injection.

Mr Birch said "life has completely changed" and he was now able to do things he could never consider in the past.

Prior to the new treatment, he had experienced breathing difficulties for more than 30 years after a motorcycle accident caused permanent damage to his right lung.

Mr Birch said he was initially sceptical when doctors at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital asked him to take part in the trial, but he was at the stage where he was "ready to try anything".

He added: "A blast of cold air before would instantly set off a coughing fit, coughing that badly that I used to pass out."

He recalled how in the space of one week he collapsed on 20 separate occasions inside his home, bruising his face and injuring his body.

'It's allowed us to do far more'

The new injection has "considerably eased" Mr Birch's symptoms and although he still has to take some other forms of medication, he said his breathing had improved and he was no longer as reliant on his nebuliser.

However, Benralizumab is not ready for widespread use.

It will still take a larger trial, due to start in 2025 and which will last two years, to be certain of the benefit.

However, the benefits for Mr Birch were clear.

"I can get out and about, I can walk my dog, I can go and find logs from outside to keep my house warm".

"It's allowed us to do far more, I'm doing stuff now that I should have been able to do years ago in my 20s and 30s", he added.

Mr Birch praised the "wonder drug" for helping him to find a new lease of life, after - at the age of 60 - taking up side-car racing with his wife.