School journey 'could kill girl'

Pollution can prove fatal for sufferers of brittle asthma

The mother of a schoolgirl with a rare form of asthma has said the child's journey to school could kill her.

Holly Keats, 13, suffers from brittle asthma and has been admitted to hospital around 50 times after attacks caused by pollution and bad weather.

But she has to walk three-quarters of a mile to catch a bus to school, carrying a six-pound nebuliser in case she suffers an attack.

Her mother asked the local education authority if Holly could go to Carisbrooke High School in their home town of Newport, Isle of Wight, because the bus stop was nearer, but was told she lived just 25 metres outside the catchment area.

Holly, who missed 42 days of the last school year through asthma-related illnesses, attempted the journey in her school induction week and had to be admitted to hospital with a chest infection.

Chest infection

Council worker Helen Keats and her husband Bob, who work in Portsmouth and Southampton, may have to remortgage their home in Shorwell to pay for Holly to attend a private school on the island.

They have lost two appeals against the LEA's decision, despite support from doctors, hospital consultants and the National Asthma Campaign, and are considering appealing for a judicial review.

Mrs Keats, whose mother died from asthma-related illness when she was just 57, said an appeal to Education Secretary David Blunkett had also been fruitless.

Robert Gorley, assistant director of education on the Isle of Wight, said Carisbrooke High School had been over-subscribed, and he did not think the journey was unreasonable.

"We are very sorry about this because the child really does have a difficult medical condition," he said.

"But we cannot see why that means she can go to Carisbrooke but not Medina, two schools a mile-and-a-half apart in the same town."

Neither school is particularly strong academically. Carisbrooke pupils have done significantly better in their GCSE exams, although only just above the average for England as a whole.