I had my first asthma attack when I was just five years old.
During an attack, my airways would tighten, making it extremely difficult to breathe.
The worst part was at night — whenever I tried to lie down to sleep, I would start choking violently.
My mother would immediately take me to the clinic at 7½ Mile Market, a 40-minute bus journey away, to get medication.
With the right medicine, I usually recovered within five days.
I still remember one particularly difficult period when I was in Secondary One at Dunearn Secondary School.
The walk from the bus stop to school along Bukit Timah Road normally took about 15 minutes.
But whenever I had an asthma attack, I could only manage about twenty steps before I had to stop and sit down to catch my breath.
What was usually a short walk would stretch into a tiring 30-minute ordeal.
My last asthma attack occurred when I was in my early thirties.
It seems that as I grew older, the attacks became less frequent and eventually stopped.
Interestingly, none of my two brothers nor my three sons ever developed asthma.
