“Persephone was a healthy child until the age of two when she first began to be affected by viral induced wheezes. Now hospital A&E visits, and several days a month spent at home struggling to breathe, is the norm.
Doctors believe her lungs have been damaged by pollution which makes her more susceptible to viral infections that clog up the air passages in her lungs.
She’s not alone. Each time we visit the hospital we witness entire children’s wards filled by other children with similar conditions and the doctors say this is the norm now.
Poor air quality in our cities is damaging our lungs and it affects our most vulnerable family members. Children like my daughter Persephone are losing days and weeks a year with serious illness rather than playing as they should. And it is reducing the likelihood of them living the lives they may wish to live in the future.
For the sake of all our society’s children we need to change our behaviour, and enforcement of tighter regulations. Their futures should not be the cost of our inaction.”