Ana’s Story

Ana’s Story

Ana shares with us a very memorable family experience – but memorable for all the wrong reasons.

“One day, around ten years ago, my Mum contracted whooping cough when she was visiting a childcare centre for work.  Concerned about how sick she was feeling, she saw a doctor who reassured her that it was just a cold.  She continued to cough and cough, so a month later returned to the GP who tested her.

It turns out Mum didn’t have a cold – it was whooping cough.

By that time, my Dad and teenage brother also tested positive.  They seemed so unwell.

A day or so later, I started to cough – I was certain it was whooping cough.  I was about 18 at the time and suffer from asthma which gets significantly worse whenever I’m sick.  Once again, a GP reassured me that I probably just had a cold.  It was no shock to me though when I returned a positive test for whooping cough! 

The entire household was so sick, constantly coughing at all hours of the night and day.  It felt like the illness just went on, and on, and on…

As a family, we always vaccinated.  However, we’d never heard about whooping cough boosters before, and a booster had certainly never been recommended to us by our healthcare provider.

I’ve never smoked or vaped and yet every time I get sick since then I get a horrible cough that stays for weeks purely due to having whooping cough as an adult (in combination with asthma).

I really hope that more people are aware of how horrendous whooping cough can be, and how important it is to have boosters.  It was an experience that I wish I could forget!”