Meet the Authors

Sue Ward – Respiratory Rehabilitation Nurse RN, BA (Hons) Palliative Care, PGCert COPD, PGCert Asthma, PGCert Pulmonary RehabilitationSue is the Respiratory Rehabilitation Nurse at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, New Zealand. Having trained as a registered nurse in Oxford in the UK, she has worked with people with respiratory disease in a variety of settings; community, acute respiratory units, emergency departments, and paediatric units. She now facilitates the pulmonary rehabilitation programme for people in Hawke’s Bay. Her area of special interest is enabling people to be able to live with their COPD, rather than their COPD ruling their lives.
Carole Donnelly – Senior Respiratory Physiotherapist BSc (Hons) PhysiotherapyCarole is a Senior Respiratory Physiotherapist at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, New Zealand. She trained and worked in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK, and has worked with people with Chronic Respiratory Disease for many years. She now works within the pulmonary rehabilitation programme in Hawke’s Bay and also has a respiratory outpatient caseload. She enjoys helping people with COPD realise their potential and find the strength and confidence to make real changes to their lives.
Carol D Cooper-Taylor – Patient MPhil, BEd (Hons), CertEd, Cert Online Education & Training Carol’s career has spanned teaching, nursing, nurse education, ICT, eLearning and education management. It has also taken her halfway round the world from the UK to New Zealand. For this book, however, she has her “patient” hat on. Diagnosed with asthma in early adulthood her condition has declined with time and she now does battle with COPD on a daily basis. She says “battle” as she is determined she will not give in to it.
Phyl Cooper-Taylor – CarerPhyl started her working life working in computers, back when punch cards were cutting edge. On retirement, she was managing 300 staff in the industrial cleaning sector. She is Carol’s partner of nearly 30 years and is her carer. For Phyl the hardest part is that “COPD never goes away, the challenge is to make the best of it.”