I first knew something was wrong when I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance when I was in second year in school. It was one day in May 1996 and I had been at my swimming training that morning at 5.30 a.m. as usual. On my way home in the car, I got a pain in my chest. By the time, I got home, I was feeling pretty bad.
My mother brought me to the doctor, and when I got there I collapsed in the toilet. It was then that I was brought by ambulance to the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown. After lots of tests, the doctors told us I had pleurisy (inflamation on the pleura of the lungs). I was in hospital for three weeks - and missed all my summer exams that year.
In September, my mother took me to Dr Luke Clancy, a respiratory specialist in St James's Hospital, where I had lots of breathing tests. I did very well on most tests because of my fitness levels as a swimmer, but there was one test (the histamine challenge) that proved I had asthma. I have a different form of asthma to most people. I don't get a wheeze or anything. I just get a very bad cough and a cold. In fact, I get fits of coughing and I cough up phlegm. And I get so tired that I can't do anything at all. I just feel completely drained. When I'm like this, I'd sleep for 12 hours at night and not do much during the day either. I can't train when I'm sick. In third year, I missed three months from school. Last year, I missed about one-and-a-half months but this year I only missed 17 days, so things are improving. When I miss a lot of school work, I have to catch up and sometimes I can read ahead for the classes I'm missing. I feel worse in the winter time. When it's cold and wet I have to wrap up well but in summer it's easier.
In fact, this summer I'm working as a lifeguard on the beaches. But if I have to get into the water, I will wear a wetsuit. I've been swimming since I was seven, and for the past five years in competitions such as the national championships, the Leinster championships and the international meetings in Galway. After Dr Clancy found out what was wrong with me, he told me to take a year off swimming. That year I was doing my Junior Cert so I didn't do any sport but I went back to swimming in June and came third in the 100-metre butterfly at the national championships in July of that year (1997). And I came third in the 200-metre butterfly in the junior category of the national championships last year. The butterfly is my best stroke. I'm now training with the Terenure College Swimming Club, and Kevin Williamson is my coach. He is a good coach and he has asthma as well so he understands what it's like for me.
Swimming is great for my asthma as it helps build up my lung capacity. Also, you are breathing in hot air in a swimming pool rather than cold air if you were playing rugby or some other outdoor sport. [The Asthma Society recommends swimming as a sport for asthmatics.] I have nine training sessions a week - five early-morning ones and four afternoon ones.
In general, when I'm training I am not more tired than the other swimmers. However, because of my asthma, I can't allow myself to get overtired or I'll get sick. So I can't go out every weekend or anything like that. I can go out every third or fourth weekend. All my friends know I have asthma so it doesn't make any difference. They understand that with my training, I can't go out very much with them. I'm on medication all the time. I take one puff of a steroid inhaler (preventive medication) twice a day - when I get up and when I go to bed. I rarely forget to take it - maybe once or twice but never for more than two days in a row. I have a reliever as well but I hardly ever use it. If I get sick, I start using it. The last time, I got sick, I was off training for six weeks. I used to get sick about seven or eight times a year but now it's only once or twice a year so the medication must be working. I'm not sure if I'll grow out of my asthma but I wouldn't say that it is a hindrance to me. There was an American swimmer with asthma who won an Olympic gold medal. As long as you take your medication, you'll be all right.