How do you feel about people smoking on the sidelines when you're playing sport?

Have you ever noticed spectators smoking or vaping on the sideline when you're playing sport? If so, how does it make you feel?

While indoor public spaces and shared communal areas must be smoke-free, it's not normally against the law to smoke or vape at sports matches if they're outside.

Gracie plays for a youth girls team in Cheshire and has been campaigning for a change in the law to ban smoking and vaping at sports matches when children are playing.

The 11-year-old has even written to The King and prime minister to ask for help to change things, saying she might have to quit football if nothing can be done.

Buckingham Palace wrote back to thank Gracie for her letter, telling her "it is young people like you who are leading the way in transforming their own communities".

Gracie has asthma, a common, long-term lung condition where your airways become swollen and narrow, making it difficult to breathe.

She said she sees at least one person smoking at every match, and told Newsround: "It hurts your chest a lot and makes it harder to play. Then if I can't play, I have to sit off [the pitch].

"There's not like a minimum amount of smoke that we can breathe in that can't hurt us. It could be small but it's going to hurt us either way."

Nazir Hussain is the Clinical Lead at charity Asthma + Lung UK and said this is an issue governments should be taking seriously.

He explained: "When adults smoke near pitches, children can breathe in that air. The impact of that is far worse for children because their lungs are growing and children breathe faster, especially when they're running around the pitch playing sports.

"They can take in a lot of smoke in a very short period of time, and as we know, smoking cigarettes can be very bad for the lungs."

He said this danger is even greater when smoking around children with asthma, as it can trigger an asthma attack and they can end up in hospital.

Gracie's mum Charlotte told Newsround: "It's heartbreaking to see your child doing something that they love but their health being impacted by something like this out of their control."

Gracie's teammates have said they also don't like it when they see people smoking and vaping from the sidelines.

"There's loads of children around a lot of the time. It could go into their mouth and lungs and it's not healthy," one girl said.

Another of her teammates added: "It's not fair since everyone's playing and having fun, but they're just like smoking and it's not very nice."

The Football Association of Wales has banned smoking from the sidelines under its Small-Sided & Junior Football Regulations in 2020, with vaping added in 2025.

Many county FAs in England - including Cheshire FA where Gracie's team is based - are part of the Smokefree Sidelines initiative.

This normally involves clubs working alongside local councils to encourage people not to smoke or vape at sports matches.

But as the aim is to educate rather than enforce, if people don't comply there's not an expectation for clubs or coaches to challenge spectators directly.

In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland the law says that adults are allowed to smoke outside.

In Wales there are more restrictions, with the law banning smoking at playgrounds, school and hospital grounds - something the government in England is also considering.

But there are currently no laws against smoking at children's sports matches, outside of school grounds.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "No child should have to worry about the impact of someone else's smoking on their health, which is why we are looking at making more places where children spend their time smoke-free, including children's playgrounds, and the area outside schools."

The devolved governments in Northern Ireland and Scotland have said are planning to do their own consultations into whether to extend the scope of current legislation around smoking.

Gracie is still hoping things will go further, saying: "I think it's good that the government is thinking about banning it from playgrounds.

"But if they can do it to places where there's going to be such younger kids, why can't they add it to our sports pitches."