Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah's statue unveiled in Mountsfield Park, Catford
Ella's mother, Rosamund and her siblings unveiled the bronze statue, which stands close to where she lived and went to school. The statue is 1.37m (4 ft 6") tall, the same height that Ella was when she died tragically, aged nine.
Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah said : "The statue will be a constant reminder not just of Ella, her spirit and her warmth, but of the need for us all to talk about air pollution and raise awareness about the damage it is doing to people's health."
Ella died from an acute asthma attack in 2013. In the three years before she died, she was admitted to hospital 27 times.
Her mother Rosamund campaigned tirelessly to get an explanation of her daughter's death. A second inquest was held in December 2020, which found that "exposure to excessive air pollution" was a cause of Ella's death, and that the source of pollution was traffic emissions from the A205 South Circular road.
Ella lived just 25 metres from the busy and congested South Circular in Lewisham.
Friday's ceremony of music, poetry and speeches remembered nine-year old Ella. A choir from Holbeach primary school, where Ella was a pupil, sang two songs that were written for her.
Her friend Anais, remembered Ella: "She was a force ... strong and stubborn in the best ways and full of life.
"The kind of friend you only find once in a lifetime .. together we left a trail of chaos in every kitchen we entered ..
"Our world was filled with YouTube videos, books, her superhero costumes, endless imagination and ... dreams of what we were going to be when we grew up."
Ella's siblings, Robert and Sophia, played music that they had composed in memory of their older sister.
Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah introduced Dr Ian Mudway and thanked him on behalf of herself and Ella's siblings. "He brought peace to our lives," she said, by providing the explanation of why Ella died.
Dr Mudway is a senior lecturer in Public Health at Imperial College and researches the impact of air pollution on human health. He contributed evidence to the second inquest.
Dr Mudway said: "The levels of particles that Ella experienced growing up are known to exacerbate asthma and to damage the lungs of children growing up in our cities.
"That is a fact. How we deal with that fact is a critical issue for us all."
Behind the evidence and data, "there are people's lives," he said. "They are children, they are the vulnerable, they are the sick, they are the infirm .. let us never forget that data has a story attached to it."
Dr Ian Mudway. The community listening to speeches. Images: Karin Tearle
The statue of Ella was made by sculptor Hannah Stewart. It was funded by contributions from the general public and grants from the London mayor, Impact on Urban Health and Lewisham Council.
The Ella Roberta Foundation campaigns on the three recommendations raised by the coroner after Ella's inquest: to bring UK legal limits for air pollution in line with World Health Organisation guidelines, to raise public awareness about air pollution and its effects, and to improve patient advice and training for nurses and medics.
