SIX year-old Josef (correct) Stevenson-Hornby knows exactly what to do if he starts wheezing at school.

The youngster goes to the drawer in his classroom at St Peter’s Primary School in Hindley where asthma inhalers are kept, gets his own and starts taking in the relieving drug.

“He’s a very independent little boy,” explained his mum, Vicky, at their Hindley home.

Josef was diagnosed with asthma at the age of one after a heavy cold and virus had left him wheezy and permanently tired. An inhaler was prescribed for general maintenance, but since then Vicky and her husband, Mike, both 33, have had to monitor Josef for the severity of attacks.

“Winter is the worst time for him”, said Vicky. “He tends to need steroids when he gets poorly then. But most of the time, it’s not a big problem and his inhaler is enough.”

What the couple did discover, and only by a process of trial and error, is that Josef is allergic to eggs which can trigger an attack.

As Josef has only ever really known having asthma, he is used to dealing with it and doesn’t let if faze him. He plays rugby for Hindley under-sevens team – “I think he loves getting muddy the most!” insisted his mum – and wouldn’t mind playing for Wigan Warriors one day.

Although he has a good understanding of the condition, when Josef read the “Let’s Talk About Asthma Book” aloud to his Mum, he did discover some new information about it. “I didn’t know that the muscles where you breathe get tight”, he said. “So it was good to understand that. I also liked all the pictures – especially of the boys getting muddy!”

Josef’s verdict on the book is it’s “really good”, and Vicky is equally impressed. “Josef didn’t know all the words at first,” she said, “but he did read out most of them to me and we talked about what they said which I think was very helpful.”

“It can be very frightening when you first find out that your child has asthma, particularly after they’ve perhaps been poorly or in hospital. But this book will certainly help children to understand their asthma, and it will also help the mums and dads.”