The mother of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who was the first person to have air pollution recorded as a cause of death on her death certificate, has secured a legal settlement after accusing the Government of breaching her daughter’s human rights.Ella, who lived 25m from the South Circular Road in Lewisham, died aged nine in February 2013. She had developed severe asthma just before her seventh birthday and was hospitalised 30 times.
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00:00Today, my family and I were meeting Minister Hardy, those of you who've been following her story.
00:07We got an apology from the mayor in February and we finally got an apology from the government.
00:15And I feel it's appropriate because Tuesday was 14 weeks to the day that Ella first became ill.
00:23And it is a tough week for us because it was during half-term week and as her mother the
00:32injuries she suffered was similar to what our KC at the time, who is now the Attorney General,
00:40said it was similar to torture. So although this isn't going to bring Ella back, we finally,
00:48except this is acknowledgement of what happened to her, and to put the issue of air pollution
00:54firmly on the map, that it's a public health crisis when we look at our NHS and something
01:00needs to be done about it. And I've got to thank you journalists, I mean really and truly,
01:05who have been with myself and given my children space to grow up through all this journey. But
01:11today it is finally over but I am going to continue and I have been reassured by the
01:18government that they're going to continue to work with me to clean up the air. And Sir Stephen
01:24Holgate, the main eyewitness to Ella's inquest, is also going to be part of it. This has been an
01:32incredibly long and painful journey and I've met many of you quite a few times actually.
01:40And it's a month short of when we started Ella's inquest, which was four years ago.
01:47And it's an opportunity again to thank the British public who donated money so we could get Ella's
01:56inquest quashed and get a fresh inquest. Ella remains still the only person in the world to
02:02have air pollution on her death certificate, although about seven million people die prematurely
02:09every year. And my concern has not changed. Children in London and I got given news another
02:15child has died in London through asthma and no child in 2024 should be dying. This isn't just
02:22about Ella, it's about all children and it's the number one childhood disease in this country.
02:28It's the main reason, apart from COVID, why children miss school in this country. But
02:35we're thankful for Minister Hardy who gave us more time than was, you know,
02:41we were even expecting. And thank you so much for waiting.