I clean and paint, clean and paint, all the time
VILMA Lavres and Amanyllo Alfonso live at Ilminster, near where Awaab Ishak lived, and have just spent £50 on anti-mould paint for their latest attempt to sort the problem out.
The couple’s youngest child, two-year-old Gabriel, had to stay in hospital for a week when he was just four months old. His parents shared harrowing footage of him struggling to breathe before he was rushed to hospital, where he was treated for bronchiolitis.
Vilma says her daughter, eightyear-old Laura, also struggled with her breathing for a time when she was younger and was given a course of antibiotics. “I clean and paint, clean and paint, all the time,” she said. When the M.E.N. visited their home in July, the bathroom ceiling was badly affected by mould.
“They said ‘there’s nothing we can do’. They say ‘keep your windows open’. When I got back [from the hospital with Gabriel] I was sleeping in the living room because the bedroom was too bad. I report it so many times. They [RBH] had some offices here, every day I was there, but they closed it. We call and speak on the telephone. Every time when they come they paint it, but [the mould] is back again.”
RBH said of Vilma’s case: “We carried out mould treatment works in this three-bedroom home in November 2020 and installed a Positive Input Ventilation unit in Jan 2021.
“We have carried out a number of repairs to the home including a central heating boiler repair in February 2022, as the one repair the family have raised with us in the last 12 months.
“We have not received any further reports of damp and mould at this home since the work carried out in January 2021.” They said they would ‘reach out’ to Vilma to address any problems.