Dog days for goal scorer

Pierre Herelle-Humes has been enjoying the heat, humidity and smog even less than the rest of us. He suffers from chronic and very serious asthma and has recently developed hay fever. Doctors don't know why but asthma patients who also have hay fever seem to be more severely affected than others by the high levels of ozone and other pollutants of the past few days.

'I have a home nebuliser,' says his mother ' but even so the atmosphere makes his eyes swell up like golf balls and I just have to wait and see whether it will bring on asthma.'

Pierre, who is 14, developed asthma when he was 6 months old and has had to go into Lewisham Hospital hospital eight or nine times a year for periods ranging from two days to two weeks. He is still a regular visitor to the children's respiratory clinic, part of the new paediatrics outpatients' department which opens tomorrow Pierre's problem is severe and his drug regime voluminous: three puffs four times a day from a Servent inhaler; three puffs four times a day from a Pulmicourt inhaler; three puffs three times of Ventolin; and 1,000 grams each day of Slo-phylin.

When his condition gets bad he has to take 12 tablets per day for five days of the steroid Prednesone.

In 1990 he had his greatest season so far as a centre forward. For his club Beckenham Town he scored 65 goals in the season and though the severity of his asthma attacks has worsened since then he is still playing and

starring for his school and his club.

(Photograph omitted)