Growing up, Dominique DeLeon spent many hot summers in a built-up neighborhood in the city of Birmingham, in central England, where she lived through deprivation and had little access to nature or green spaces to help her cool down.
Though she has moved to a different part of town, ever since her daughter was born in 2008, the 35-year-old has been increasingly concerned about the impacts of hotter weather on her family and the wider Black and Asian community.
"We're disproportionately affected by varying health conditions ... because of the concrete jungle in which we reside," said DeLeon, director of Ebony Hikers, a walking group that takes Black British people on hikes around the country.