So my mum used to tell me, it was a bad dose of the measles that did it. Aged four, I got asthma. I’ve had it ever since. So have around 10,000 others in Blackburn alone.

As a child, my asthma could be terrifying. Apart from breathing exercises, the only treatment I was given was ephedrine tablets. They took time to work, and meanwhile I used to panic that, slowly but surely, I was being asphyxiated.

My life changed in 1968 when a drug company brought out its pale blue inhaler. I’ve had one in my pocket ever since. It was joined some years ago by a pink one. This contains an anti-inflammatory steroid.

“Beta-2-agonist” is the scientific name for the key components of the pale blue inhaler. There was, however, a worry about whether the use of this drug could increase an adult’s risk of developing heart problems, including heart attacks.

This crucial question was not resolved until researchers were able to analyse the health records of over 500,000 adults who’d been prescribed these drugs over a 14 year period. Happily, they found that there was no link with heightened risks of heart disease.

This research came from your, and my, health records, held by GPs. All the data is anonymised.

There’s been more than 1,000 such studies over the last 15 years. Without access to patients’ GP records, the quality of the lives of a lot of us – me included – would be much less, and some people enjoying life today wouldn’t be here at all.

Now the government are proposing to extend this data base, by linking all NHS data about all patients in a single system. It’s called “care data”.

There’s been such a fuss about whether patients could be identified, despite all the safeguards proposed, that the government have delayed its launch by six months.

Tough safeguards there certainly have to be. But, be in no doubt. If we want to see more lifesaving and life-enhancing drugs developed, we need this new system.