Children with asthma have stopped turning up at hospital after two Swansea Bay nurses got their families moved out of damp, mouldy homes.
Joanne Morris and Rachel Rees are paediatric respiratory nurses. They kept seeing the same children back on the ward, and the same thing when they asked about home: poverty, damp and black mould on the walls.
Now they have what they call “a direct line” to Swansea Council and the housing associations. Neath Port Talbot Council is on the line too, and when a child keeps coming back, the landlord hears about it.
Joanne said the families who had been moved were the proof. “They’re not coming to hospital anymore, due to the removal of the triggers.”
“It doesn’t matter what medications they’re given”
Mould can inflame asthma and cystic fibrosis, and the health board says in some cases it can kill. Joanne said the nurses could adjust a child’s drugs all they liked, but “it doesn’t matter what medications they’re given, if they are living in a place like that”.
She added: “It’s like they’re living with somebody that’s smoking next to them. We have to address it.”
She said the problem was more common than it used to be, and put it down to money. “It’s people not being able to put on their heating when they want to put it on.”
The toddler whose death changed the law in England
The pair started after a 2024 conference talk by Dr Ian Sinha on poverty and children’s lungs. Rachel said they also had Awaab Ishak in mind.
Awaab was two when he died in Rochdale in 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould in his social housing flat. His parents had complained and been ignored.
England now has Awaab’s Law, which forces social landlords to investigate and fix damp and mould within set deadlines. No Welsh equivalent is in force, so Joanne and Rachel went to the councils and housing providers themselves.
Rachel said: “We thought we need to have something in place that’s able to help these families.”
Ten families referred, four in ten rehoused
The nurses’ poster on tackling mould, which has won a national award, says about ten families have been referred to housing teams since June 2025. Four in ten were rehoused, three in ten had the work done, and the rest are being dealt with.
The two councils have agreed that children with lung conditions go to the front of the queue for damp-proofing or a move. The nurses present the poster at the National Paediatric Respiratory and Allergy Nurses Group conference next month.
Dr Huma Mazhar, consultant paediatrician and the health board’s respiratory lead, said mould could cause “persistent cough, wheeze, disturbed sleep and recurrent exacerbations” that made asthma hard to control even with the right treatment.
She said the pair “proactively contacted the council to arrange property inspections and supported families in securing better housing”, and that their work showed “the vital role of specialist nursing in addressing the wider determinants of health”.
Private landlords: the families the nurses can’t yet help
The gap is private renters. The nurses wanted to send private landlords a standard letter setting out what mould does to a child’s lungs, but the health board’s legal team would not back it because of “potential financial and legal implications”, the poster says.
Families in private lets are pointed to the law instead, including Awaab’s Law where it applies, and the nurses say their power to act for them directly “is limited”. They are asking colleagues elsewhere how they handle it.
What to do if your child’s home has mould
The nurses’ advice to parents is not to wait. Joanne said: “They have to report it, get it reviewed by the council as soon as possible to start work.”
Swansea council tenants can email HousingRepairs.CallCentre@swansea.gov.uk. In Neath Port Talbot, problems with a rented home go to the council’s environmental health team.
Housing association tenants should report to their landlord, and the nurses encourage parents to tell the Morriston Hospital respiratory team too.
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