A triathlete who thought she would never get back on a bike after developing severe asthma now hopes to compete again following treatment with a new “wonder drug” at a London hospital.
Sport was a core part of life for Beth Barrett, 27, from Woking, who took part in triathlons around the UK. But in late 2016 the NHS communications officer, then 23, had an asthma attack for the first time. It was diagnosed as acute adult-onset asthma which led to her being hospitalised for weeks.
Ms Barrett was admitted 21 times over the next three years and required invasive treatment to keep her airways open. “I’d never had an asthma attack before so it was a total shock,” she said.
“I was intubated and kept in hospital for more than a fortnight, and from that moment I was never out of hospital for more than two weeks until last July.”
The turning point came when she was referred to the severe asthma clinic at Guy’s Hospital, and offered a new biologic therapy called benralizumab.
She was one of the first 100 asthma sufferers in the UK to try the drug, which costs up to £12,000 per course and targets a specific inflammatory cell of the immune system.
Ms Barrett started injections last summer and is back cycling, running and swimming.
She said: “I went from finding it soul-destroying to be stuck in bed to having no hospital admissions, exercising again, getting a new job and, ultimately, my life back.”
Dr David Jackson, consultant and clinical lead for Guy’s severe asthma centre, said: “Biologic therapies have transformed the care of patients in terms of day-to-day symptom control and frequency of attacks as well as reducing steroid exposure and their associated side-effects.”
He added: “This is a wonder drug for many people with severe asthma.”
