A young mum has spoken of her "traumatic" experience living in a mouldy flat which has led to her son being rushed to hospital seven times with asthma attacks.
Chaileigh Clancy, 21, only moved into the property in Mitcham, south London, last January.
She told MyLondon that while there were no issues at first, she discovered thick, black mould on the inside of her cupboards in October.
That month, her 18-month-old son Billy was taken to hospital by ambulance for the first time after suffering an asthma attack.
After having yet another asthma attack on Sunday, he was hospitalised for a seventh time, Chaileigh told the Local Democracy Reporting Service this week.
"He never had these problems before, now he's got an inhaler," she said while still at Epsom Hospital.
"When I found out about the mould situation I got in contact with [housing association Moat], I explained that my son was in the hospital but it wasn’t until January they came and fitted a dehumidifier.”
Chaileigh said this was taken away again five weeks later, but the mould persisted and little Billy has been in and out of hospital since then. The mould was caused by a leak from a flat upstairs which the housing association, Moat, repaired in January.
She said: “Not being listened to has affected my mental health and seeing my son in and out of hospital with all these medications pumping into him has been upsetting.”
"It’s traumatic, I’m having nightmares that my son will die. We have to hold him down when we put a nebuliser on him so he doesn’t move, it can be quite traumatic for him.”
And because he is getting so sick, Chaileigh said she has been told not to take Billy to playgroups around other children to not put him at risk of catching any illnesses.
Chaileigh’s story appeared in the Sun Online last week, and she said since then Moat has been in touch and started work on fixing the flat.
Moat said it carried out a soft mould wash on April 8. Chaileigh was moved to a hotel on Tuesday for the cupboards to be chemically washed and repainted on Wednesday.
But the mum said she is “petrified” to return with her son as planned on Thursday (April 14) as she fears the mould will come back.
She added: “I’ve lived with mould before when I was a child with my mum, I know that it comes back. It is outrageous how they can make people live in these conditions, you wouldn’t be allowed to leave an animal in these conditions.”
A spokesperson from Moat said: “We are very sorry to hear of Ms. Clancy’s son’s poor health and have been in regular contact with her. The leak which was the source of the problem was fixed in January. A follow-up survey scheduled for April 4 showed the two cupboards affected had dried out sufficiently for final repairs to be undertaken, but that some mould remained.”
