Becky Ward sleeps in fragments. Her younger son, Levy, is 8, has epilepsy and cerebral palsy, and his body struggles to shed heat. During the big heatwave he had two seizures at night. “I need to wake up constantly through the night to check his body temperature,” she told The Independent.
Ward, 42, from Essex, co-founded the campaign group Mothers Rise Up, and she has now put that fear into a petition. Thousands of parents have signed, among them the singer Paloma Faith. It is addressed to Andy Burnham, described by The Independent as the incoming prime minister, and asks him to meet parents worried by the recent run of record-breaking temperatures.
A summer of long hot spells
Britain was in its third heatwave of the year when the paper reported the story on 19 July 2026. Parts of the country had seen temperatures above 30C for 12 days in a row since the start of July, after England had its warmest June on record. Public infrastructure struggled, and rare red weather warnings were issued.
At home, Ward tried what she could. She spent £325 on a portable air conditioner for her son’s bedroom in the house, which dates from the 1960s. “It didn’t cool the room down. It wasn’t strong enough,” she said. “I feel like I haven’t slept for months.”
What the petition asks for
The text calls on Burnham to adapt homes, schools and public buildings along the lines of the Climate Change Committee’s A Well-Adapted UK report. It also seeks more investment in affordable and renewable energy, and opposition to new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, the Rosebank field included. That last demand lands in a tense spot: the paper noted that Labour MPs, Burnham among them, have faced pressure from the energy industry to push up North Sea production after energy secretary Ed Miliband showed reluctance about new drilling.
Mothers Rise Up says it gained hundreds of members after the two latest heatwaves and now counts more than 500. Its plan is to deliver and post personal letters to 10 Downing Street at the end of August. “He surely can’t ignore hundreds of letters dropping in from mothers saying we’re so scared and terrified for our children,” Ward said.
Some of those letters were read by the paper. One mother in Manchester wrote that her 10-month-old daughter’s room reached 31C at the height of the latest heatwave. Another, Leah Cooper, a mother of two, wrote that she had been putting on a brave face for her children but was worried about their future.
Experts and government respond
Mark Pelling, a professor at University College London’s Department for Risk and Disaster Reduction, argued that adapting to heat has to be driven locally, with mothers and councils working on the homes and schools in their own patch. Done well, he said, it could help Burnham tackle thornier issues such as housing and localism. Mel Evans, head of climate at Greenpeace UK, urged Burnham to listen to the group.
A government spokesperson said ministers had committed to strengthen climate adaptation, and pointed to the new Local Authority Climate Service for councils and rules meant to limit unwanted solar heat in new homes. During extreme heat, the spokesperson added, people should follow the alerts issued by UKHSA. The Independent said it had approached Burnham for comment.
