‘You are a hero’, Arnold Schwarzenegger tells Ella Kissi-Debrah’s mother in heartwarming letter

A coroner has ruled that air pollution was a cause in nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah’s death

Arnold Schwarzenegger poses during a photo call to promote the film Terminator: Dark Fate in London on October 17, 2019. The former governor and actor has penned a touching letter to the mother of Ella Kissi-Debrah. (AFP via Getty Images)

Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has praised the mother of Ella Kissi-Debrah, the nine-year-old whose 2013 death was ruled on Wednesday to have been partly caused by air pollution in London, as a “hero” for her years-long fight for justice.

In the years after Ella died in February 2013 after suffering acute respiratory failure, her mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, a former teacher, had campaigned tirelessly to have her daughter’s death examined by a second coroner, asserting that London’s severe air pollution was partly to blame for the tragic loss. 

On Wednesday, coroner Philip Barlow agreed, issuing a landmark verdict declaring air pollution as a cause in Ella’s death, along with severe asthma.

Mr Barlow said Ella had been exposed to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM) pollution in excess of WHO guidelines and he said the failure to reduce traffic emissions to legal limits possibly contributed to her death, along with the failure to inform her mother of the potential impact of air pollution on her daughter’s asthma.

On the eve of the verdict, Schwarzenegger sent a letter to Ella’s mother, praising her as a “hero” for her fight to have “pollution's terrible impact on your daughter acknowledged”.

Read more: Coroner says air pollution contributed to death of nine-year-old in landmark ruling

"As a father, I cannot think of anything worse than what you've been through," Schwarzenegger wrote. “There is no greater tribute to Ella's memory than your efforts to protect other children who live alongside busy intersections, close to factories, or downwind from powerplants.

“You are a hero. You proved that when you channeled your love for Ella into exposing air pollution for the killer it is. I am blown away by your bravery and honored to know you."

(PA)

The actor and former governor became an unexpected ally in Ms Kissi-Debrah’s fight after he championed her effort to see air pollution addressed.

Speaking with Kissi-Debrah in a televised Skype call on BBC Breakfast back in January, Schwarzenegger said: “Air pollution kills seven million people around the world every year. The governments around the world should acknowledge that, not look the other way."

“I’m very proud of you," he said at the time, adding in reference to the film in which he starred: You just keep on fighting. You’re like the Terminator.”

Sharing the heartwarming letter to Twitter, the Ella Roberta Family Foundation thanked “Mr S” for his “warm words”.