I have been asthmatic since age 4 and was often ill as a child.  Luckily for me, in the 1960s researchers at Glaxo developed salbutamol and beclomethasone for use as inhaled treatments for asthma.  I was effectively "cured" by those drugs age 12, though I still use inhalers every day.  Not all asthma sufferers are as lucky - over 1,000 deaths from asthma occur every year in the UK, ~3,500 in the USA, and an estimated half a million worldwide.  Asthma & Lung UK provide meaningful advice and helplines, and have donated over £100m to research so far.