Healthy Homes = Healthy Happy People

Aim

To prove that our homes, buildings and household products are killing us!! Giving us all the quality of life that are 100% entitled to!!

A bit about me

My name is Kristine Reilly-Blake, I live in North Northumberland with my husband and my 2 children. I am the owner and founder of Healthy Homes and Beyond IAQ

My indoor air quality journey began at the age of 19 where I had a child with an undiagnosed respiratory condition. 

Who Knew Asthma was Life Threatening?

From the age of 4 months my daughter was prescribed inhalers and we were left to get on with it. After years of hospital admissions, courses of prednisolone, dieticians, dermatologists and so many disgusting creams and treatments, she was finally diagnosed with Asthma in 2005 on the Isle of Arran where we had moved only months previously. 

Looking back now at photos and videos, I can see that she was always struggling. However, at the time I did not have the knowledge or experience to see what was right in front of me, I was never given specialist asthma training to be able to spot triggers or even on how to administer an inhaler correctly. 

We continued for another 4 years, blind to the dangers and triggers of asthma, constant exacerbations and still no referral to a specialist hospital or consultant to be able to assist us in having better quality of life. 

It's just Asthma right!!! WRONG... Its a life threatening condition

After 8 and a half years my daughter had such a severe exacerbation of asthma that she was within 10 minutes of death. She was 9, I didn’t know to call 999, I hadn’t been informed that asthma was life threatening or what to do if she had a severe exacerbation, so I took her to the hospital in the car, granted it was only a 7–8-minute drive but those minutes I know now, without medical intervention could have been the last minutes of her life. 

In 2012 we moved to Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland, with the aim of starting a new life and having a better quality of life, sea air, countryside, and better outdoor air. Little did we know that this is where our journey was going to take the biggest turn yet.

Within 6 months of moving to Northumberland my daughter's condition became dangerously life threatening. After 8 weeks of moving into our new home she began to display severe symptoms of asthma, we didn’t have any pets so what I had been told previously was incorrect, pets were not the trigger. She had 2 severe exacerbations within 12 hours and was sent via emergency ambulance to The Great North Childrens Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne, this was the beginning of daily trips to A&E or at least 4 days out of 7 being blue lighted up and down the A1 to Newcastle. She was eventually diagnosed with severe asthma, and statistically she was the 2nd worst child in the North-East of England suffering with asthma where every admission death for her was feared.

Just because you cannot see it, does not mean that it isn't there!

I discussed the possibility with specialist paediatric consultants and nurses that my daughter’s asthma could be environmental, be it outdoor or indoor. I began to research indoor air pollution and the triggers for asthmatics and was astounded that not one professional healthcare, housing or education had even considered this possibility. Safe to say I was dismissed and ignored by all professionals, so I set out to prove that it was in fact our indoor environment that was causing such severe exacerbations of symptoms. I could not sit back any longer and watch my daughter suffer in a constant state of fear of her death because of a lack of knowledge, education, and experience.

What do you know? Your just a tenant!

I began to educate myself on damp, mould, Volatile Organic Compounds, particulates, mycotoxins, and any other toxins/chemicals that may cause an exacerbation of symptoms that could be causing a detrimental effect on my daughter’s health. However, I could not personally remove the issues that were being experienced to our home as it was the responsibility of our housing association who continued to brand me as a problem tenant and as an over protective mother, and continually tried to disempower me as a mother and as a human being! 

The issues were proved to be that of poor workmanship, leading to excessive amounts of soot and dust being blown from the loft and the chimney stack. It took me 2 years after leaving the hospital after having my youngest daughter to prove that it was our indoor environment due to no fault of our own that was in fact causing my daughter to be so sick.

The Holiday of a Lifetime. https://www.dreamflight.org/

The turning point for us was when my daughter was nominated by her specialist respiratory nurse to go on the holiday of a lifetime with Dream flight, an all-expenses paid 10-day trip to Florida for children living with lifelong conditions. In the 10 days that she was in Florida, she only had to take her salbutamol inhaler once, while at home she was taking it every four hours, and on full dose steroids daily. 

Within 48 hours of returning home from Florida my daughter was blue-lighted to Newcastle, where the healthcare professionals were now listening and taking my theory on board. With the assistance of my daughter’s consultant, who is the clinical director, and her specialist asthma nurses my daughter's schoolteachers and other local teachers were given specialist asthma training, asthma stations were placed around the school, salbutamol inhalers and disposable spacers were ordered all whilst raising awareness about the severity of asthma.

Alongside the Specialist Paediatric Respiratory Team at The Great North Children's Hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne, I started my journey to Healthy Homes and Beyond IAQ, I just didn't know it yet!

Beat Asthma!https://www.beatasthma.co.uk/resources/families-children/my-rights-when-i-have-a-child-with-asthma/

I educated myself on asthma, gained specialist asthma training for schools in the area we live and became an editor on the beatasthma.org website, helping families going through similar issues. I also trained to be an expert Independent Damp, Mould, and Timber Surveyor, running Damp Detectives North East England and Scotland, while expanding my knowledge and experience in Indoor air Quality (IAQ) and became certified in undertaking IAQ Samples, whilst continually searching for an accredited certification in the UK. I have helped many families already with underlying health conditions to have a healthy home and a better quality of life

It was indeed poor indoor air quality that was causing such severe exacerbations of asthma that I had to prove to professionals who should have had the knowledge and experience to help and support us, but we were dismissed and ignored for over 5 years whilst my daughter was trialled on almost all new asthma treatments which caused her to be continually bullied and attacked at school and on social media. If I am being totally honest the psychological impact on her was far more life threatening in the end as she tried to take her own life on 3 occasions.

As a parent this was totally soul destroying, after the severe emotional trauma of having to save my daughter's life and fight to keep her alive we were then just left to cope with the aftermath of a life-threatening condition that had caused so much pain, stress, and anxiety.

So, instead of allowing it all to consume me I decided to focus all my emotion and trauma in a positive direction to prevent this happening to other families, no one should ever have to endure what we endured as a family due to a sheer lack of knowledge and education.

Healthy Homes & Beyond IAQ is my vision for others who have been or may come up against the issues that we did. To help, support and investigate indoor air quality issues that are being constantly ignored and dismissed in this ‘out of sight, of mind society’ that we live in, which is causing serious public health issues. 

I am extremely proud of my achievements and how far I have come. Being able to assist and support families and individuals with their own IAQ giving them the quality of life that they not only deserve but are 100% entitled to.

I am now a fully Certified and Accredited Indoor Air Quality Environmentalist, accredited through the American Council for Accredited Certification earning a unanimous vote of approval from the American Council Board of Peers. 

My Vision

For the future my vision is for there to be governing in place for domestic IAQ and to prove the link between poor housing and health as I have already been told to do so on many occasions by our own government.

To date I have funded my organisation myself and to be able to continue to raise awareness and educate about the health impact of poor indoor air quality and the detrimental effect that it can have on health I decided that we should try set up a crowdfunding page to see if we could gain some additional funds, the funds raised will:

• Help families living with underlying health conditions where their symptoms are being exacerbated by poor housing and IAQ get the much-needed tests and assessments needed to prove that it is their indoor environment causing poor health whilst educating them on how to improve the air within their indoor environment.
• Help to prevent future sickness due to poor housing and other indoor environments giving us the tools to educate all professionals who have a legal responsibility and duty of care to health and wellbeing. Arming them with the knowledge to offer the correct guidance and support
• Create an indoor air quality awareness roadshow, visiting cities and towns throughout the UK passing on knowledge and information about our health and our homes and how to improve our indoor environments, offering healthy solutions to domestic cleaning products, building materials, personal care products and much, much more.
• Allow Healthy Homes & Beyond IAQ to expand the current organisation by employing like-minded individuals who also have a passion for Healthy Homes and improving health.
• Help us to invest into the future of Healthy Homes development opportunities at design level, to build healthy environments that are free from man-made building materials filled with extremely harmful toxins, ensuring that only safe, sustainable materials are used within the structure of the buildings we all live, work and socialise in, with a systematic approach to monitoring the performance of these buildings continually, ensuring that the environments are safe and heathy spaces to thrive in.
• Support with advertising campaigns and branding to let everyone know that we are here, and we can help your home and indoor environments be the safe place you want and need them to be for you, your children and the people you care about the most.

We will give regular updates on social media and via our newsletter on our progress and keep you informed on where we have spent your money. Every penny will go to helping individuals and families within the UK have safe indoor environments, whilst collecting all data from air tests, dust samples, toxicity samples, dust mite samples to prove the link between poor health and housing. To push for the proper governing of domestic indoor air.

Thank you so much if you have managed to get right to the end of my story, it is greatly appreciated that you have taken the time to learn about how my vision came to life.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have a IAQ story you would like to share or just want to have a chat about your own IAQ or health related issues that you feel might be being exacerbated by poor indoor air quality/environment.

www.healthyhomesandbeyondiaq.org.uk 

[email protected]

Call us on: 07858211637 – Our working hours at this time are Mon-Thurs 9.30am-4.30pm we aim to get back to you within 48 hours this may vary during busy periods, do not fear we will get back to you as soon as we can.

This project successfully funded on 15th May 2023