Glasgow Warriors captain, Alastair Kellock, visited Auchinairn Primary School in Bishopbriggs yesterday (Wednesday 22 April) to explain to pupils how his asthma hasn’t held him back from achieving his sporting ambitions.

Kellock, who has played 17 times for Scotland, is a former pupil of Bishopbriggs High School and was a speaker at Asthma UK Scotland’s 15th birthday celebrations at Murrayfield Stadium in September.

The visit is part of Asthma UK Scotland’s work with Auchinairn to mark its first-ever fundraising and awareness week ‘Putting Asthma in the Limelight’, which runs from 2-10 May. Pupils from Auchinairn with asthma are also going to be speaking at a meeting of the Cross Party Group on Asthma in the Scottish Parliament on 6 May.

The pupils are Asthma UK Scotland’s ‘Young Ambassadors’, a scheme which encourages children and young people with asthma to use their own experiences to change people’s perceptions of the condition.

Gordon Brown, Asthma UK Scotland’s Public Affairs and Communications Manager, says: "We are very grateful to Scottish Rugby, and to Alastair Kellock in particular, for helping us highlight that young people no longer need to worry about missing out on opportunities simply because they have asthma.

"We now have young ambassadors from across the country, but they have tended to be individuals working on their own initiative and in their own time. Before now, we had never had a school embrace the idea so whole-heartedly as Auchinairn Primary School have.

"Unfortunately, Scotland has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the world – we reckon there are three children with asthma in every classroom. And it can be a much more serious condition than some people realise; in the UK every 16 minutes a child is admitted to hospital due to an asthma attack and a person dies every seven hours as a result of asthma."

Alastair Kellock says: "I’ve never let my asthma hold me back and it’s important to me that I encourage young people not to let it stand in the way of their future ambitions.

"Asthma UK has done some fantastic work helping people of all ages deal with the condition and I’m delighted to help wherever I can, especially in an area so local to me."

Kirsty Rawley, Auchinairn’s depute head said: "We are also grateful to Alastair for taking the time out to speak to the pupils. The teaching staff recognise their pupils’ well-being is a vital part of their development, as well as the need to ensure a greater understanding of common conditions such as asthma.

"Through our work with Asthma UK Scotland, the children with asthma are realising the issues they face are not unique and we hope that that in itself will lead to them having more confidence and wanting to make a difference for themselves and for others."