However, I had a fairly stressful time since the early nineties, and I picked up a very bad virus in 1994 which left me with fatigue which severely inhibited my ability to exercise and consequently my asthma began to be a bit of a problem again. I started wheezing and having mild attacks. I also started to put on weight, which made everything more difficult.

During the last four years my wife and I discovered that we could not have children. Despite an attempt at IVF, we decided to seek adoption, but because of our age, we could not adopt a baby in this country. Through an adoption support group we explored the possibility of adopting a baby from China. We set the wheels in motion and after two years in April 1997 we adopted a beautiful little girl called Lucy.

I was conscious that because of my age that when Lucy grew into a teenager I would be coming up to sixty, but I couldn't seem to find the motivation to start exercising again. Work was becoming stressful and my health was worsening. Fortunately I saw the QED programme and this motivated me to look at the Buteyko method again. I found Buteyko