Travelling to the far corners of the world has never been more accessible; the thought of being able to experience new cultures, push yourself out of your comfort zone and take on ‘bucket list’ style challenges has seen some of us reaching for the passport and packing a bag. However, when you’re living with a severe allergy to nuts, going on a trip of a lifetime can be a daunting prospect.

Going on a ten-day trek through the Wahabi desert would be a challenge for most of us with 4am wake up calls, five hours of walking a day and being miles away from civilisation. 16-year-old Aadam had another thing to think about on top on this, a severe allergy to nuts. Aadam is a pupil at The Manchester Grammar School, when we asked why he chose this school trip Aadam’s response was simple “I hadn’t been on a trek like this and I wanted to make the most of this opportunity”. Aadam had been on many of his school’s trips in the past including visits to New York, Spain and Washington DC. This however was a new ball game and one that required some incredibly careful planning.

First of all, how would Aadam store his life saving medication? Aadam knew that his medication needed to be stored at a certain temperature in an air tight container and opened each night to let fresh cool air into the flask; “I kept my adrenaline pen and anti-histamine in a flask, a really good flask”. Aadam’s mum Rozina had an idea to test whether or not the flask would work and with the help of the biology department at the school they put its ability to the test; ”I knew the biology department had an incubator, we decided to put the flask in the incubator at 30 degrees for 8 hours”, Aadam said. The test was a success and Aadam was over the first hurdle. Anaphylaxis Campaign always recommends speaking to your GP or pharmacist before you travel regarding your specific medication*

With Aadam trekking for five hours non-stop a day it was recommended that he would need to consume 2,800 calories. Aadam’s friends all knew about his allergies and as a precaution for his safety, the school had requested that no tree nuts were to be brought on the trip. However this couldn’t be said for the food being prepared locally.

Originally the plan was for Aadam’s dad, who is based in Dubai, to go to Oman and speak to the Bedouin cooks about the food. However, due to the absence of ingredients labelling on locally sourced food, a lack of understanding around food allergies and a language barrier it was soon realised that this would not be possible. Plan A had not been successful, and it was clear that Aadam would need to bring 10 day’s worth of food to the desert.

Aadam and mum Rozina looked into a few options including dehydrated food before finding Expedition Foods, a company that produced pre-packed trek food in a nut-free environment. The food was transportable and all Aadam needed to do was add water. Aadam and Rozina sat down before the trip and put together a calendar to mark out what Aadam would eat each day to make sure he was getting the correct calorie intake and having a good variety of tastes. Aadam also tried every meal before he went with mum Rozina saying “I wanted to see every meal he was taking pass his lips” Plan C was a success and Aadam was ready to go on a trek of a life time!

For Aadam, the best things about the trip were having fun with his friends and the walking they did each day. While in the Wahabi desert Aadam visit a Bedouin school and stayed overnight in a Bedouin house. When asked if he was nervous about going into the desert with a severe allergy Aadam answered “prevention is key, so instead of dealing with the problem prevent it from happening” incredibly wise words!

Aadam’s advice if you’re considering travelling with an allergy is be prepared! Have a plan A,B and C “You can’t just rock up on the day and hope everything will be ok you need to take all the necessary precautions”.

We’re so grateful to Adam for sharing his story with us and his top tips for travelling and we look forward to seeing what other adventures Aadam does in the future!

*We always recommend speaking to your GP and Pharmacist before travelling with a severe allergy or anaphylaxis. All patients are different, and specific cases need specific advice. There is no substitute for good medical advice provided by a medical professional.

Orange Wig Day is the biggest and brightest day in the annual calendar of the Anaphylaxis Campaign as people from across the UK wear distinctive orange wigs at home, work and school to raise awareness about severe allergies and anaphylaxis. Getting involved was truly a family affair this year for nurse Lucy and her children, 10-year-old Caleb and 6-year-old Emily.

The Moreton family have a personal reason to be passionate about allergy awareness; as Lucy explains “My daughter Emily was diagnosed with a dairy allergy at around three months old, and then during the process of weaning had multiple allergic reactions to wheat before we figured out what was causing them. Just this year we have established that Emily has thankfully outgrown her dairy and soya allergy, and can now tolerate baked egg, but as you can imagine, it has been quite a journey getting to this point, and we’re not there yet!”

Caleb was determined to take part in Orange Wig Day to support his sister and didn’t let having to take his SAT exams on the 18th May hold him back! He asked that his school could take part a week early so he didn’t miss out.

Lucy said “Caleb’s fundraising total was £285.00 in the end, he was quite overwhelmed with the support he received and is now feeling very proud of himself. He certainly got some attention at school, his friends thought it was great that he ‘actually did it!’

We’re really proud of him for not just raising the money, but for raising awareness of the seriousness of food allergies amongst his fellow students. It was also great to see so many staff and pupils wearing orange on Friday for their ‘allergy awareness day!’

Armed with knowledge gained from completing an Anaphylaxis Campaign ‘train the trainer’ AllergyWise course, Lucy, who is a registered nurse with a background in A&E and also a Healthcare Member of the Anaphylaxis Campaign, held a series of sessions at Caleb’s school called ‘how to be an allergy hero’ with the support of her sister. Around 420 children learned how to be allergy aware.

Lucy said: “It really was lovely to see how every single one of the children seemed to understand the significance of what we were telling them. We were asked lots of really good questions and heard lots of stories about their own experiences of food allergies, whether it was the child themselves, or someone they knew. I had some lovely feedback from the teachers following their session and many of them enjoyed sharing their new understanding with the children while we were there on Friday.”

If that wasn’t enough, Lucy also got her work colleagues involved with Orange Wig Day raising over £118 through a bake sale and holding anaphylaxis training too. It’s amazing to see how this passionate family are helping the Anaphylaxis Campaign to raise awareness about severe allergies in their community.

Creative for Ted Baker Daniel Kelly, aged 25, has launched an allergy blog to try and break people’s stigma about what it is like living with a severe food allergy. The release is planned to coincide with Orange Wig Day, the national day of anaphylaxis awareness organised by the Anaphylaxis Campaign.

The Anaphylaxis Campaign previously supported Daniel, when as a final year student at Huddersfield University, he created an allergy magazine titled ‘May Contain’ which aimed to increase awareness of severe allergy and bring it into the modern consciousness.

Daniel said: “I’ve lived with a severe peanut allergy since the age of 5. The idea for this blog goes back to the summer of 2015 when I designed a food allergy magazine to raise awareness for anaphylaxis. This magazine was created for my final major project at University, I chose the issue to raise awareness of anaphylaxis and other allergies.”

As part of the blog launch, Daniel worked with two artists to illustrate both the wrong and right way to administer an EpiPen®, saying:

“It really annoyed me that in movies they always portray administering the adrenaline auto-injector incorrectly. I wanted to highlight this issue in a humorous way, and also show the public how to use the adrenaline auto-injector correctly.

I was very fortunate and thankful to the illustrators for being involved in this project, as I didn’t have any budget – as I say, it was a personal project. However, two of my favourite illustrators wanted to get involved to raise awareness, and they were just as excited as me about it. Both Thomas Hedger and Anastasia Yevtushenko both have a very distinct and interesting style, that’s both direct at portraying a message while also containing elements of humour.

When I contacted Thomas, I didn’t realise that he was an allergy sufferer as well and carried around an adrenaline auto-injector. He knew exactly what I wanted to achieve. It also made me realise that it’s such a small world – more people that you might think carry an adrenaline auto-injector with them.”

Lynne Regent, Chief Executive of the Anaphylaxis Campaign, said:

“I was very impressed with the quality of the ‘May Contain’ magazine Daniel produced as part of his university project a few years ago. I am delighted that Daniel is continuing to use his graphic design skills to raise awareness about severe allergies to coincide with the Anaphylaxis Campaign’s national day of anaphylaxis awareness, Orange Wig Day.

Teenagers and young people are a particular risk group of dying as a result of a severe allergic reaction, which is why we worked so hard to get our Take the Kit film made to highlight the importance of always carrying emergency medication. If you are prescribed adrenaline auto-injectors, make sure you know how and when to use them; they may save your life. Our free online AllergyWise courses are a great resource to help with your training.”

You can view Daniel’s allergy blog at www.may-contain.com and reach him on Twitter and Instagram @maycontain_uk.