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Becoming a father for the first time is a major event in any man’s life.

But for Scarborough photojournalist Keith Meatheringham, the event was complicated by a serious asthma attack.

Here is his story about a traumatic few hours…

My asthma had started getting bad two or three weeks before Angie’s due date, but I had not even considered that it could be due to the worry of becoming a dad for the first time.

It was summer at the time, and my asthma does sometimes get worse with the hot weather and my suffering from hay fever as well.

But this seemed different somehow – and it was getting worse every night.

I had made an appointment with a doctor, which I unfortunately missed as a job came in at the same time, so had to work.

All through the night of Angie’s due date my breathing was seriously deteriorating, until around 7am the following day, Angie finally said ‘right – I am taking you to the hospital’.

I realised at the time that it was the only thing to do, but also couldn’t believe that my wife was due to give birth at any time, and there she was driving me into hospital.

As we left the house all I remember thinking was, if the neighbours are looking out now, they will be thinking that Angie was driving herself to hospital, and then looking at me and thinking – what sort of a husband is he making her drive herself!

After a few hours in A&E, they still couldn’t get rid of my asthma, so they decided to admit me.

I remember thinking ‘Oh God what a story! If only it was someone else, I could do a story on it!’

When I got to the ward I began worrying about how Angie was going to get to the hospital when she began giving birth.

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