National Eosinophilic Awareness Week started today, but my bid to raise awareness of this rare condition in fact started on Friday afternoon.  Last year, Mike and I looked to raise awareness amongst our work colleagues, so my plans for this year obviously had to be bigger and better and I started by e-mailing the local press to see if anyone would be interested in running our story.  To my delight, late last Wednesday I was invited to appear on our local BBC radio station to talk about M, EGID and coping with the daily battles we have to face, including cooking for a child with multiple food allergies.  I accepted the offer and Friday afternoon saw me heading into the BBC building with a batch of freshly baked M-friendly cupcakes to share with the presenter and other guests.

The cakes were well received, even by the security guards, who were keen to find out more about why I was bringing the cakes into the studio and enjoyed the M-friendly treats I left with them after the show. It was an amazing experience and I can’t thank our local radio enough for giving me the opportunity to get the message about EGID out into our community.  I was able to share, both on and off air, a little about the challenges those of us living with EGID have to deal with and the prognosis for M and children like him.

But, our Awareness week activities don’t stop there.  This time last year, I wrote about our decision to “eat like M” during the week:  one year on and we’re repeating the experience, although we have the added challenge of dropping raisins, raspberries and potatoes out of the diet too.  Actually, this isn’t as tough for me as it is for Mike – I’m not a big fan of raisins and can’t eat potatoes at all due to my own intolerance to them.  We have some more awareness-raising events planned for the week ahead, but for now, I’ll leave you with our meals for the day: