'Help us share our memories of Yvonne'

IT STARTED with a slight cough. A cough that wouldn't clear. Then Yvonne Kelly's breathing began to be laboured.

A diagnosis of asthma followed and inhalers became a constant part of daily life. At the age of just 32, the Clermiston mum was told she was suffering from emphysema, a debilitating lung condition, which typically affects those twice her age.

By the time she was 50, she was housebound and receiving oxygen ten hours a day - that's when she wasn't in hospital.

Just four months after that milestone birthday, she was dead from a disease that kills thousands of people in Britain every year.

To the anti-smoking lobby, Yvonne's story is a stark example of what cigarettes can do to your health. But for the family she left behind - sons John, 27, Liam, 18, and her eight-year-old daughter Lauren Flynn, as well as the grandchild she never lived to see born - her death is a tragedy.

Now her younger sister, Sandra Ramsay, along with her children, are determined to ensure she is remembered by raising thousands of pounds for the Western General hospital ward where she spent her last days.

"She was a beautiful person. She loved life and everyone loved her," recalls Sandra. "We still can't believe she's gone really. My mother, who is 73, is finding it extremely hard, as are the children and her fiance Mark Flynn.

"When she was told she had emphysema all those years ago we never thought for a minute this was how it would end up. It started with a lot of chest infections so she had to do a lot of breathing tests and it was diagnosed as asthma.

"But just after she had Liam they told her it was emphysema. No-one could believe it, even the doctors said she was far too young to have it, that it was more something seen in older people."

Emphysema, part of the group of breathing conditions that come under the umbrella term Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and which kills 25,000 people every year, is damage to the smaller airways and air sacs of the lungs. It generally affects those aged 50 and above and smoking is the most common cause. Indeed, it's believed that three in every 20 people who smoke 20 cigarettes a day will develop COPD if they don't stop smoking.

Sandra, 49, adds: "She was never given a reason why it had happened to her when it did, it was just one of those things. Yes, she smoked, but she was never a heavy smoker. And she stopped before Lauren was born. I smoke 20 cigarettes a day and I've never been affected the same way. Why it happened to Yvonne we'll never know.

"It's still all so raw. She was my sister and my best friend. She was my rock when I lost my daughter Shannon at just two days old, 11 years ago, so when she was ill I was there for her.

"On her 50th birthday we were in a Glasgow hospital to see if there was any way she could receive a heart and lung transplant, but we knew she was too ill to go through something like that."

Yvonne - who worked as a manageress with a catering firm - was, says her son Liam, a generally fit and healthy person until her disease got progressively worse.

"She always walked everywhere so it was difficult for her when she couldn't walk because she couldn't breathe," he says. "I was at college studying joinery and had to take time off to look after her. It was hard, but she was always there for me."

And her other son John, who is about to become a father for the first time in January, adds: "I was living away but when she became ill I came back home to live. It was difficult, but we looked after her as best we could.

"She went into the infirmary to have a growth on her lung removed, and to be honest she went downhill fast from there. Everything went wrong after that. She had a blood clot in her lung, then her lung collapsed. She was sent home but had pneumonia so she was rushed right back to hospital."

This time it was to ward 54 of the Western. "The staff were amazing and we felt they did all they could to help her," says John. Sandra, a home help from Roseburn, adds: "She would come home for a few days then end up back in hospital with another chest infection. She lived for her kids but it got to the stage where she couldn't even brush her own teeth or go out of the house by herself. She was so frustrated by it all.

"The time we went to Glasgow to see if she could survive a transplant and they told her it was too dangerous, she said to me 'if it kills me, it kills me, but I want to do it'.

"When she was in the Western, I asked her consultant Dr Reid if I should raise money to try and take her abroad for a transplant but he told me it was really too late.

"We tried to keep her spirits up. John told her she was going to be a grandma and she was thrilled. But the last time she went into ward 54 was May 20, and she died two days later.

"We are all shattered. Lauren especially has been terribly upset. She's had an awful year because her old school, Drumbrae primary, closed just after her mum died so she's had to settle into a new school on top of everything.

"She cried a lot, and she sends me text messages every day. She was really good when her mum was ill though, wanting to help all the time."

Now the family are planning to hold a charity dance in January in honour of Yvonne and to raise money for new equipment for the respiratory ward of the Western General. "After Shannon died I had a charity dance for Sands, and so I want to do another in memory of my beautiful sister," says Sandra.

"All the money raised will go to ward 54 for them to spend on helping other people with lung conditions."We want everyone who knew Yvonne to come along and remember her - including those who would have known her from growing up in Prince Regent Street in Leith, when we were called Lawson.

"I have so many wonderful memories of her, and I want to share them with all those who remember her."

• The Yvonne Kelly charity dance will be held on January 14, 2011, at the Masonic Club, Shrubhill, Leith Walk. For ticket information, call Sandra Ramsay on 07864-869 551.

Biggest cause of absence

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an umbrella term for people with chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both.

The most important treatment is to stop smoking and inhalers are commonly used to ease symptoms. Other treatments such as steroids, antibiotics, oxygen, and mucus-thinning medicines are prescribed in more severe cases.

About three million people in the UK have COPD. It mainly affects people over the age of 40 and becomes more common with increasing age. The average age of diagnosis is around 67 years. It is more common in men than women.

COPD accounts for more time off work than any other illness, and one in eight hospital admissions is due to COPD.