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My son began having wheeze (probable asthma) attacks during a very intense heatwave in London during 2018. He had two life-threatening attacks that summer, other severe and less severe ones. The following year he 3 and the year after that 2. He has missed months of nursery. I have struggled to get back to work. It has been very frightening for both of us. He has had over 30 hospital appointments, probably the same number of doctor's appointments. It has made it really hard to work, which as a single parent is a really big problem.

I have also witnessed another boy have a life-threatening asthma attack in the hospital bed opposite. He deteriorated so quickly and so badly that around 15-20 staff rushed in, emptied the ward of other patients, he was taken to an intensive care unit. Witnessing this, along with seeing my son struggle to breathe has left me with post-traumatic stress disorder. People don't realize what an asthma attack looks like and what it takes to recover. You can't sleep because you are coughing, vomiting from coughing and have to have medication intravenously as well an inhaler at such frequent intervals that you can't rest.

My 4 year old was first diagnosed with wheeze at 18 months, we spent most nights awake with him for several hours as he was unable to lie down and get his breath. This had a significant effect on his learning and cognitive development, and he fell behind on his language. From the age of three he has been treated for asthma and started sleeping at night. Since then he has been catching up in time for starting school. His attacks are worse when air pollution levels are high. Today is a moderate level for air pollution and as he is sitting playing next to me he is wheezing.

My eldest son became very ill with Bronchiolitis several times as a baby in the winter of 2015 and then again as a one-year-old in 2016. It was alarming to see him struggling to breathe. At our local A&E the doctors asked if our flat was damp. This was alarming to hear, but this wasn't the case for us. The weather being damp was also not a factor, as I grew up by the sea (which is extremely cold and damp in winter) and I had not heard of this lung condition before.

One A&E doctor suggested that Bronchiolitis is more prevalent in London due to the higher levels of pollution. This piqued my interest in the quality of the air around us.

When I was pregnant with my second in 2018, the midwife at my antenatal appointments had me take a Carbon Monoxide breathalyser test at each appointment. When I walked, the test was green. When I drove my diesel car, the CO levels were very high to the point where the midwife would ask if I was smoking and to get my boiler checked out at home. At no point was the fact I had driven in my car taken seriously or considered a factor. If there were breathalyser tests for everyone to measure for car emissions, I think we would find we are breathing in a lot more toxic air than we realize.