Important- does the London humidity make it hard to breathe?

Hello,

My mother wants to drop me off to Uni this August 9th, as well as do a 16-day tour of the Continent. She has a serious respiratory disease known as scleroderma (somewhat like having skin cancer and lung cancer simultaneously), and she is concerned about the humidity. She has trouble breathing in intense heat and humidity.

I checked out the BBC's weather averages (they said about 68-75% humidity in August, at about 54-70 degrees).

She asked me to post on this board for personal experiecne- does anyone normally have problems breathing in this? In particular, does anyone here have a lung condition? And what about the rest of Europe?

Thanks as always for your help,

-Sprigged

Like any city, in the summer, London can be hot, humid and polluted. It just depends. Some summers here are very mild by (most) American standards and often a 'hot' spell will only last a few days.

One 'disadvantage' is that many places in London won't have air conditioning which is what often makes life bearable for Americans with respiratory conditions. Make sure her hotel does and that she can control it. Many shops will have it but don't count on historic homes and such having AC.

The continent is another story. I would think August would be a pretty bad time to do most of southern Europe unless maybe she sticks to the mountains. Places like Rome for example would be pretty hot and humid. Perhaps others can elaborate on that...

BTW, not to nitpick, but isn't scleroderma an autoimmune disease that can affect the respiratory tract - not a respiratory disease in and of itself?

I cant comment on the humidity, cos its not something i pay any attention to.
However, i just wanted to say that i developed asthma very soon after moving to London...  I dont know what caused it, or how i got it, but i basically got a terrible cough which lasted 3 months, so i finally took myself to the doctor about it and they told me that i'd developed asthma, and put me on inhalers.  I've been on the inhalers ever since, even after leaving London.

Who knows?  Perhaps i would have got it even if i had remained in Glasgow instead of coming to London? 
Just wanted to let you know of my experience.

Thank you both! I will pass this on.

BTW, not to nitpick, but isn't scleroderma an autoimmune disease that can affect the respiratory tract - not a respiratory disease in and of itself?

Yes, you are right, and I am quite impressed! Usually when I say Scelroderma, people think "sclero-what?". So, that is just my simple way to describe it.

Thank you so much. .

It depends on what your mother is used to.  I'm from Florida - the folks here in the UK don't know from humid as far as I'm concerned! 

i have asthma and haven't found it to be terrible-i use my inhaler sometimes, but not too bad....

just try and keep her off the tube as much as possible!

It depends on what your mother is used to.  I'm from Florida - the folks here in the UK don't know from humid as far as I'm concerned! 

I agree. I'm from New York City and I constantly feel dried out. My hair is a ball of static electricity.