Ella was a little girl born in East London in 2004 with no health issues. She was active in sports and shared the same interests as her peers. When she turned seven, Ella began experiencing breathing difficulties, and after several hospitalizations, she was diagnosed with asthma. None of the available tests could identify the cause of her asthma, and her condition continued to worsen.
After more than 30 hospital admissions and at the age of nine, Ella died in 2014 from a fatal asthma seizure. Thanks to the persistence of her mother and the doctor who had followed her condition from the beginning, it was proven that Ella’s illness and death were caused by exposure to air pollution — primarily nitrogen oxides generated by traffic. During the two years of her treatment, Ella’s mother was never informed about what might be causing the disease, nor was she warned that exposure to polluted air could worsen her condition.
This made little Ella the first person in the world to have air pollution officially listed as the cause of death on her death certificate. Her mother went on to establish a foundation dedicated to informing as many people as possible about the importance of air quality for children’s development and health.
