Federal government injects $240k into Asthma Foundation NT

Asthmatics across the Territory are rejoicing after a massive funding boost for the foundation. Here’s what it means to one sufferer.

The Territory’s peak body for asthma services has been handed a lifeline after its funding was knocked back by almost 80 per cent earlier this year.

Territorian and asthmatic Fiona Darcy was thrilled to hear federal Health Minister Mark Butler had allocated $240,000 to the Asthma Foundation NT over the next two years.

The former CLP president said she discovered her asthma while she was in Lhasa, Tibet.

“It’s got quite an altitude there,” she said.

“I lived with my husband for years – who was an asthmatic – so I knew that I needed Ventolin, and I had to brave one of the Chinese pharmacies there.

“It just made such a difference.”

CLP President Fiona Darcy speaks with NT News on election night. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

After returning to Australia, Ms Darcy discovered the Asthma Foundation NT, whose services were both professional and welcoming.

Ms Darcy – who lived on a cattle station for 30 years with her husband – said accessing such services in a remote area would have been life-changing.

“They just make such a difference, your whole quality of life is different,” she said.

AFNT chair Ian Crundall said the additional funding would be used to upskill Aboriginal health workers and practitioners in remote and regional areas of the NT.

“We’ve been able to service the Top End and Greater Darwin region for quite some time – even though we’ve had to pull back some of our programs over the years, there’s still adequate services for those people,” he said.

“The remote and regional focus is really because that’s the area that has had the least access to support.”

He said the training would focus on bringing workshops to regional health practitioners to provide a “renewed educational instruction”.

Those workshops would highlight medication distribution, demonstrations, and background on the symptoms and treatment of asthma – particularly in light of the Barkly wildfires.