Wales grandmother Ann Mayer has been coughing for 35 years

For most people, the misery of a cough lasts only a few days. Not so for Ann Mayer.

The 76-year-old started coughing 35 years ago – and has not stopped since.

And to make matters worse, Mrs Mayer is a singer in a cathedral choir.

Doctors have not been able to diagnose her or find a cure since her cough started as a ‘tickle and a splutter’ all those years ago.

But now Mrs Mayer, a grandmother of four from Llanbedr, North Wales, is taking part in medical trials to test a new drug, which it is hoped will cure her chronic cough, also thought to be suffered by thousands of others.

Ann Mayer, 76, (pictured) started coughing when she was 40 years old and hasn’t stopped

Mrs Mayer, a soprano in St Asaph Choral Society, said: ‘I started coughing when I was 40 years old, completely out of the blue. 

‘One minute I was fine, the next I had a tickle and a splutter… I thought it must be a bit of dust, or maybe the start of a cold. But it never went away.’

She added: ‘When I first started coughing, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.’

Despite trying ‘virtually every remedy’, from honey and lemon to antibiotics, nothing has ever shaken the cough. 

Mrs Mayer said: ‘I’ve had cameras up my nose and down my throat, come back all clear on allergy testing and doctors have drawn a complete blank.

‘I’m now hoping that I won’t have to enter a fourth decade with this dreadful cough. That’s why I’ve agreed to help in the trials as I know just how irritating and frustrating it can be.’

And to make matters worse, Mrs Mayer (pictured age 55) is a singer in a cathedral choir

And to make matters worse, Mrs Mayer (pictured age 55) is a singer in a cathedral choir

The trials, run at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Imperial College London, are to test a new drug called MK-7264.

The study is being funded by the Wellcome Trust charity and researchers hope to find a cure for the 12million people in the UK who develop a chronic cough at some point in their lives – although for most, it lasts only a few months. 

Mrs Mayer, who used to work in a bank, hopes for a treatment to allow her to carry on singing. She said: ‘I started singing at 14 years old as a soprano and it has been my life-long passion.

‘But things are now so bad that when we perform, which is mainly in cathedrals, I have to stand at the end, near to a pillar, so I can hide behind it when I start coughing, as once it starts it’s sometimes hard to stop. It’s infuriating.

‘I’m terrified that my cough will one day stop me performing altogether.’ She added: ‘It makes life so difficult in so many ways. 

It is almost impossible to go to the cinema, and a complete nightmare going to a library. 

‘At my Sunday service, as soon as the sermon starts, you can bet your bottom dollar so will my cough.’

The cough has also affected Mrs Mayer at home, where she lives with husband Christopher, 67. 

She said: ‘It’s so bad in the night, as soon as my husband Christopher gets off to sleep, as if on cue, my coughing will start. He’s now decamped to the spare room.’



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