Tag Archives: BBC

Perfect Faces for Radio

Looking back this evening at some of the photos taking up the precious memory that’s left on my phone, I’ve realised that there have been so many things that I haven’t quite got round to sharing with my blog. As you’ll have noticed, my foray back into the world of full-time work after being made redundant almost a year ago has meant that I just don’t have the time to dedicate to writing 2 or more blog posts a week, but I still want to share many of our recent experiences and so the updates may take just a little longer to arrive on your screens than before.

The first looks back to May, when every year we mark National Eosinophil Awareness Week and for the last 4 years, a big part of my campaign to raise awareness has involved live appearances on our local BBC radio station, talking all things EGID and answering questions surrounding the inevitable interest about M’s extremely restricted diet. Whilst it is always a challenge to think on my feet and answer questions without any prior warning about what the presenter might ask, I relish the opportunity to spend 20 minutes speaking about EGID and what it means to our family to live with it day in, day out to those listening within our regional broadcast area. I have spent 5 years being extremely grateful to those within the EGID community who have been honest about their experiences and take the time to support those who are newly diagnosed and often looking for an understanding that the medical community jut can’t offer. Sharing our story, both through my blog on a regular basis and through these occasional newspaper articles and radio appearances, are my way of giving something back to our EGID family, new members and old.

This year I wanted to change the dynamics of that radio interview if I could and so asked if I could bring G and M along to our local BBC studio to talk about what living with EGID means to them. The radio presenter and his team were more than happy to agree and so it was that on one rather glorious Monday morning, I found myself heading into town with an excited M and somewhat apprehensive G in tow. They had slight nerves that they didn’t know in advance what questions might be asked, but M had sought advice from his Stagecoach drama teacher the previous week and was confident that he knew how to develop his responses to any closed answer questions to avoid giving one word answers. I’ll be honest, I did have some concerns about both children speaking live on local radio: I wasn’t convinced that G would break from her current monosyllabic, teen state and had absolutely no idea what might come out of M’s mouth at any moment. In both cases, I would be hard pushed to exert any sort of control over them once we were on air, except by thoroughly preparing them on our car journey there and then reminding them of my expectations through meaningful glances and subtle eyebrow raises across the microphones!

To my delight, both children were absolute stars and whilst, unsurprisingly, M took to the experience like a duck to water, even G found her confidence to answer some of the questions and we had only one awkward silence to contend with during the 20+ minutes of our appearance. The children spoke clearly and slowly to make sure they could be understood and took their time to give well-thought out answers without leaving the listeners waiting for the dead air to be filled. They both loved every moment of it and have expressed an interest in finding out more about possible future careers that would see them working for the BBC, though G was fascinated by the research being done for the different news programmes and M has a yearning to explore the life of a TV camera man. My big thanks go to our local radio station who were prepared to take a chance on interviewing G and M live on air and for giving us, yet again, the opportunity to spread the word about EGID far and wide.

NEAW 2016 – #MoreThanFoodAllergies

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The headline in our local paper for this year’s #NEAW focuses once again on the allergies

I share a frustration with Michelle, one of the lovely co-founders of the FABED, that all too often people living outside of the EGID world get drawn into the food allergies side of this illness and don’t really understand that that is just a small part of a much bigger picture. I can understand why the focus so often falls on it as it’s the bit that people think they understand and can relate to the most. After all, just about everyone knows someone, be it their next-door neighbour, the family down the street or Great Aunt Joan in Australia, who has an allergy. They often feel that that acquaintance, however remote, gives them an insight into what life must be like when your every waking moment is ruled by their presence and I’m all for that belief encouraging them to engage me in conversation about it. Added to that, so much of our social life revolves around food, a fact that isn’t a revelation to me as I’ve discussed it before on my blog. In the last week alone we’ve had to survive the “Second Sunday” breakfast held at our church, sweets brought into school to celebrate birthdays and M’s class cake sale to raise funds for classroom resources. We managed them all in our own way, from arriving late and avoiding the table of food in the church hall, to M’s trusty swap box, which has finally been refilled and returned to his teacher and the gentle request to the TA that the class cakes be moved to somewhere other than next to M’s stationary wheelchair for the day.

Of course, I obviously can’t ignore the fact that my blog focuses a lot on the impact M’s complex food allergies has on our everyday life. So much of my time and energy is spent researching, adapting and learning more about how to feed him varied meals whilst coping with such a restricted diet that food allergies undeniably rule my kitchen. As a fellow EGID Mum recently posted, every single aspect of our children’s lives are affected by food, no matter how many food allergies they are dealing with. Everything has to be planned and thought about, there can be no leaving things to chance and there’s rarely an opportunity to be completely spontaneous. At home, at school, going out for meals, tea at a friend’s house, family gatherings, holidays, hospital admissions, trick or treating, birthday parties, Christmas, Easter, the list is endless and all-consuming. There’s also unquestionable irony in the fact that we as a family will be “eating like M” to draw attention to the eosinophil awareness week. The reason? I know our restricted diets will allow us to engage with others who will be intrigued by the limitations and in turn that will enable us to share the EGID story too.

However, despite the truths above, it’s really important to get the message out there than EGID is about more than food allergies, a whole lot more. Whilst it’s common for people with ‪EGID to have food allergies, those with allergies do not always develop EGID. At the risk of repeating myself, EGID is, as I wrote for last year’s #NEAW, about “…the unexplained joint aches, the never-ending tummy cramps, the relentless feelings of nausea or reflux whenever you eat. The dark shadows under the eyes, the manic mood swings, the overwhelming lethargy, or the inability to fall asleep and stay that way. The damaged bowel, the fear of not being near enough to a toilet whenever you need one, or knowing that you’ll never get there in time anyway. The fear of your friends making fun of your allergies or finding out that you’re still wearing a pull-up because your bowel can’t be relied on when you most need it to. The daily medicines, restricted diets and the feeding tubes. The chronic pain that can reduce you to tears, yet you don’t complain because nothing helps, even when it’s at its worst.

It’s about getting used to these things as being normal, or not even realising they’re not.”

We’re marking our 4th National Eosinophil Awareness Week and despite all our best efforts, I still find myself spending a lot of time explaining that there is more to M than his food allergies. This year is a particularly tough one as there is a lot of uncertainty and discussion in the medical community about the validity of EGID as a diagnosis. Hospitals and their consultants are questioning whether EGID is really anything more than complicated food allergies, but they are failing to talk, and more importantly to listen, to the families who are living with it on a daily basis, who are surviving those symptoms I’ve mentioned above and who are having to battle to get their voices heard. Some parents have found themselves in a situation where treatment has been removed suddenly because the veracity of their child’s EGID diagnosis is under review and are left watching their loved ones spiralling back into chronic ill-health whilst the medics argue over whether EGID exists. I can’t predict what the next 12 months will bring for those of us living with the presence of EGID in our families, but I do know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we will all continue to fight for ongoing good health and that every battle won is a huge success.

EGID is about #morethanfoodallergies and that’s a message the world needs to hear.

Just a reminder that as well as raising awareness of EGID this week, we are also fundraising for Over The Wall Serious Fun camps. If you are able to donate, even a small amount, that donation will make a big difference to children like M and G, who benefit massively from these camps. You can donate via my Just Giving page or the link on the side of this page. Thank you!

The 12 day countdown…

7 things to do in hospital when you’re 8 (& 3/4)

Children in Need

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Courtesy of http://www.bbc.com

If you live in the UK, I doubt you could have missed the fact that it was recently BBC’s Children in Need. For those of you who reside elsewhere in the world and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about, Children in Need raises money for numerous charities, large and small, who work to bring much needed help to children across the UK. The evening is celebrated with a TV extravaganza, which sees celebrities singing, dancing and otherwise performing as you’ve never seen them do before, all in the name of fundraising. Children in Need has been running for over 30 years and since 1980 has raised well over £600 million for the children it supports.

This year it set the theme of “Be a Hero” and G and M, as well as thousands of other school children across the UK, were invited to come to school dressed as a hero. The options were endless and as we walked to school that morning, we passed Superman, Spiderman, Tinkerbell, Violet Incredible, Harry Potter and Florence Nightingale to name but a few. I’m always interested to see who my two will choose to dress up as, not least because M’s costume almost always inevitably involves some late night sewing and creating by me.

G, after a short discussion with Mike about what her options were, settled on dressing as Princess Leia from the Star Wars trilogy, a choice that fortunately didn’t need much more than a few minor adjustments to the base layers we had. A long-sleeved white long tunic, a pair of white leggings, her brown boots and a chain-style belt accompanied by the iconic hair-style of 2 coiled bun over her ears and she was dressed and ready for anything the galaxy threw at her. She was delighted with her costume and I was impressed that it came home almost as white as when she went to school in the morning!

With G’s decision made, I waited nervously for M’s choice of hero, fully expecting him to have chosen someone far more complex, which would leave me scrabbling around for clothes to meet his exacting requirements. So you can imagine my surprised delight when he went for what is possibly the simplest, but most meaningful choice he’s made in years. M wanted to honour his very own hero, his gastro consultant at GOSH, Dr H, who has made such a big difference to his life over the last 3 years. We put him into a pair of home-made scrubs and Mike generously donated a white shirt, which I adapted to be his doctor’s white coat. A printed name badge declaring him as a “Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist” from GOSH finished the look.

Once school was done for the day, we raced home and changed into their onesies, ready for an evening at Stagecoach, before spending the evening at my Mum’s for dinner and the best of BBC light entertainment. The night raised over an amazing £32 million with more money still to come in and be added to the total. This will make a big difference to the children it can help support and it’s never too late to donate – just click on this link.

The Message from “My Man” at the BBC

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Three weeks on from that episode of the BBC’s hospital drama, Holby City and I’m still reeling from the amazing response to my blog post and the unexpected bonus of two phone-calls with series producer, Simon Harper. When I penned my heartfelt response to what Mike and I had watched on-screen, I expected to reach a few more than my usual readership and dared to hope that I might beat my previous “top score” of 186 readers in a 24-hour period with my letter to our local hospital. I never dreamed that over 2,000 people across the world would read, comment on and share that plea for responsible portrayal of chronic illness in the mainstream media. As well as sharing my thoughts through my blog, I made a formal complaint to the BBC and, through the wonder of Google, managed to track down Simon Harper and sent him an e-mail, expressing my concerns about the inaccuracies about EGID portrayed in that episode.

Courtesy of bbc.co.uk

I didn’t expect to hear anything back, so you can only imagine my surprise and absolute delight when Simon not only replied to my e-mail, but also offered to pick up the phone and discuss the matter with me. We agreed a day and time to talk and I spent the week making notes and talking to fellow EGID parents through FABED and other on-line forums to get their points of view on what I needed to raise in my conversation. That first phone-call lasted for around 30 minutes and at no point did I feel that Simon was keen to close down the conversation and finish the call, He was genuinely interested in learning more about EGID and understanding why this episode had caused such distress in the on-line community. We spent a long time discussing the difference between “intention” – what the program was trying to portray – and “perception” – what the viewing public understood – when it comes to producing a drama for television viewing and here Simon explains it in his own words:

The intention: “the guest character’s general allergies were a dramatic smoke screen to the actual underlying cause of his pain, neuralgia – but that in no way were those allergies supposed to suggest a condition as specific and, as I now know from talking to you, severe as EGID. In no way was the story supposed to say that EGID was in fact just neuralgia!“.

The perception: “I think it comes down to one scene where Zosia (the doctor) mentions that Nigel’s eosinophils are up – due to his general allergies – and she then goes on to mention “his eosinophilic gastro-enteritis”. What I can see maybe wasn’t clear was that Zosia, excitedly bandying round theories and possible prognoses at this stage of the story, is in fact supposed only to be raising EGID at a possibility at that moment. A possibility that, in fact, turns out not to be the case. But I can see that the phrasing “his” – combined with the fact that dramatically speaking, we never see Zosia rule out EGID (a moment we assume happens off-screen) – could have given the wrong impression. It’s a tough call with medical drama – you never play on-screen every single beat of medical treatment that would happen in real life, choosing the moments which best serve the story, and sometimes rely on the audience’s imagination to assume and deduce. It’s a delicate balance, and there is definitely a lesson to be learned here, because evidently, missing out that moment has in this case given the wrong impression.”

I also mentioned my concerns that a range of inflammatory bowel diseases had appeared to be ruled out through a simple ultrasound, whilst those of us living with this family of illnesses know, from our first-hand experiences, that endoscopies, colonoscopies and biopsies are the only reliable ways to confirm a final diagnosis. The conversation ended with an agreement that Simon would spend time investigating what research was done, talking to the consultant concerned and checking out the ultrasound situation before phoning me back a week later to talk some more. I was struck by his commitment to unpicking where and how things went so wrong and have to confess to being cheeky enough to send another e-mail, thanking him for his honest discussion with me and pointing him in the direction of various EGID websites, so that he could truly understand what our families deal with on a daily basis.

A week later and that second phone-call happened. Another 30 minutes valuably spent clearing up those outstanding points, including his agreement that the discussion regarding the ultrasound came across as far more definitive than was their intention. I have to say I’m impressed with the research into EGID he had done during that week and appreciate that he took the time to properly review the research done originally for the program. Finally, and definitely most importantly, he has sent a huge apology to our EGID family and I truly believe it is a heartfelt one.

Courtesy of psmag.com

“I repeat, I am absolutely aware that despite all this, an upsetting impression was given due to the way EGID was referenced and never ruled out on-screen and there is absolutely a lesson to be learned there for the future. I can’t undo any upset caused, I realise, but do so hope I have been able to reassure you that we take the medical research aspect of HOLBY with the utmost seriousness and that in this instance, it truly was not an instance of inaccuracy, but, I think, a point of clarity that had an unforeseen impact on how the story came across.

I truly have enjoyed our conversations, as not only did I get an education on the condition that your son, you, your family and many others are so courageously living with, but, as a producer, it is always absolutely invaluable to get insights on how our story intentions actually translate to an audience member – that gives us great help in the way we tell our stories for the better to make HOLBY an entertaining but hopefully also stress-free hour! And I do hope that you will continue to watch and enjoy the show.“

A big thank you to Simon Harper for his willingness to be open and honest about the research done for this storyline, the errors of judgement made in the production, to talk to me not just once, but twice and his apology for the upset unintentionally caused. As one of my fellow EGID Mums asked (and I wholeheartedly agree):

“Any chance they’ll get Mr Allergy (grrrrrr) back and do a proper episode on EGID?“

Simon, I wait for your answer!

EGID – the real story

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I am still reeling from the astounding response to my last blog post, Dear BBC Controller. When I asked you, my wonderful readers, to share what I had written in a hope of raising some much-needed awareness about EGID, I have to admit to only expecting the odd person to possibly share the link on Facebook with a few of their friends and nothing prepared me for what happened next. From the 20 shares that I know about, that post gathered momentum and I experienced a fantastic demonstration of exactly what social media can do. Within 48 hours of publication, that blog was viewed by over an amazing 1,800 people across 33 countries and the statistics are still creeping up on a daily basis. I have been humbled by this response to my plea and I can do nothing more than extend my heartfelt thanks to you all.

One of the things I realised, however, is that I have never given a comprehensive explanation of EGID and that my last blog post may have left new readers wondering what on earth all the fuss was about. Those of you who follow my blog will have an understanding of how this chronic illness impacts our lives and for those who know our family personally, you have probably had a brief explanation of the disease along the way. In that last blog post I didn’t want to go into the finer details of what exactly EGID is, so now I want to set the record straight, so to speak, and explain in a little more detail M’s condition.

EGID, or Eosinophilic Gastro-Intestinal Disorders, are a complex and chronic group of digestive system disorders caused by an abnormally raised level of eosinophils within the gastro-intestinal tract. Eosinophils are an important type of white blood cell, which normally help the body fight off certain infections and parasites and are typically involved in attacking the causes of allergic reactions, thus protecting the body. In some individuals, the body produces too many eosinophils in a particular part of the GI tract, which leads to chronic inflammation and can cause extensive tissue damage in that area. It is currently thought that there is both auto-immune and genetic involvement in EGID, but further research will be needed to confirm these links. Like many inflammatory bowel diseases, EGID is a classic waxing and waning condition, meaning that the symptoms and their severity can change on a daily basis.

This family of rare diseases is diagnosed depending on where in the GI tract the elevated eosinophilic count has been found:

Eosinophilc Oesophagits (EE or EoE) – in the oesophagus and is the most commonly diagnosed form of EGID
Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis (EG) – in the stomach and/or small intestine
Eosinophilic Enteritis (EGE) – in the small intestine
Eosinophilic Colitis (EC) – in the large intestine (colon)

This last one is the type that M has been diagnosed with, which means he has, in typical M-fashion, a relatively rare type of a rare chronic illness. Statistics are not readily available as it was only first recognised during the first half of the 20th century, but over the last 20 years, cases have been recorded in the UK and there are currently in the region of 700 cases looked after at Great Ormond Street Hospital. This suggests around 2,000 diagnosed cases across the UK as a whole and there are also known cases of EGID in other countries, including Australia and Canada, with a starting point of 3,000 people diagnosed in the USA.

Symptoms of EGID include:

Diarrhoea
Constipation
Blood and/or mucous in the stools
Stomach pains
Lethargy
Mouth Ulcers
Rash
Asthma attacks
Sore throat
Joint Pains
Headaches
Vomiting
Nausea
Reflux
Failure to thrive
Sudden weight loss
Loss of appetite
Mood swings
Excessive sweating/body odour
Loss of colour in the skin
Dark rings under the eyes

None of these symptoms is exclusive to EGID and not all are experienced by all patients. We had noticed a number of these with M in the years leading up to his diagnosis and it was the odd combination of them – diarrhoea, poor weight gain, joint pains, mood swings, excessive sweating, body odour and dark shadows under his eyes – that led to our conclusion that this could well be what he had.

As eosinophils are part of the body’s response to allergic reactions, it comes as no surprise that many people with EGID also struggle with a varying level of food and environmental allergies. What makes it even harder is that these allergies can also wax and wane and therefore can change over the years. When M was diagnosed we were asked to put him on a MEWS (Milk, Egg, Wheat, Soya) free diet, which is a common starting point for those with EGID. Over the years, we have also had to remove gluten, potatoes, raisins and raspberries from his diet to try and alleviate his symptoms and we still don’t seem to have the answer to whether this list is complete or not. Some of the lovely families we have met through FABED have had to go a step further and remove all foods from their child’s diet due to a constant flare-up of their EGID. These brave children are now tube-fed an elemental diet in an attempt to help them feel better and grow stronger.

These families have to cope with numerous hospital visits, regular hospital stays, invasive diagnostic procedures such as colonoscopies and endoscopies, tube-feeding, colostomies, huge amounts of medicines daily and the unavoidable emotional fall-out from children who long to be just like their peers. All of this is why it’s important that the media realises that EGID is not about “Mr Allergies” and why such factually inaccurate portrayals of chronic illnesses are problematic for this EGID Mum.

If you are interested in finding out more about EGID, you can also look at these sites:

***Breaking news – today I received an e-mail response to my complaint from the Holby City series producer. He has offered to look into the research done for this story-line and will discuss it with me, over the phone, later this week***

Dear BBC Controller

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Sometimes something happens that leaves me lost for words.

Having heard the furore on Facebook from fellow EGID parents, Mike and I sat down last night to watch Tuesday’s episode of “Holby City” on the I-player. To say that I was speechless as the drama unfolded would be an under-statement; to say that by the end I was fuming would be a gross denial of the feelings that it had caused. My hackles started to rise from the moment we were introduced to the character later described acerbically as “Mr Allergies” and we both sat in stunned disbelief as the storyline ended with everything being cured by a rapid diagnosis and a special injection.

For those of you who aren’t Holby City fans, or who didn’t have the misfortune to catch it when it aired on Tuesday night, let me give you a quick precis. A young man, portrayed from the start as little more than a time-waster and with a list of allergies as long as your arm, is admitted into the hospital. Nobody can pinpoint what’s wrong, but the doctor in charge of his care recognises that his symptoms fit with EGID. She performs that little-known-as-highly-reliable diagnosing tool of an ultrasound (!) to rule out Crohns disease and Diverticulitis and comes to the conclusion that it could possibly be EGID, but is more likely to be a mental health issue due to him craving being a “rare” individual and the attention that obviously affords him. On the basis of all this, and having given him leaflets about planning his own funeral, she tells him it’s a previously unidentified trapped nerve, gives him an injection and within minutes he’s up on his feet, completely cured and feeling better than he has in years.

If only M’s life were that simple. If only a simple injection could take away the pain and acute discomfort that M struggles with on a daily basis. If only I could tell him that the magic wand we both are longing for has finally appeared and all his hurt and frustration and despair will be gone, just like that. If only it was likely that since he was small, my distraught 8 year-old has been craving nothing more than extra attention by being a medical rarity. If only I’d known that it was all in his mind, or, more likely, all in mine as I’ve known from babyhood that there was something very wrong.

It has taken 7 years for us to reach a diagnosis, bypassing multiple doctors who thought it nothing more than a bad case of toddler diarrhoea and a somewhat neurotic mother. Even though we now know his chronic illness by name, lack of funding and research means that we still don’t have any answers and every step taken with GOSH is a step of faith that something will help at some point. Every day I meet with people who have no idea what EGID is and the impact it can have on the family as a whole, let alone on my 8 year old himself. Most of the medical staff we see have never heard of the illness, do not understand the subtle nuances of this hidden disease and have no idea how much we all need their help. And we’re not on our own. There are over 300 other families who look to FABED for support and share the highs and lows of this illness with each other, as we can understand like no outsider can; and that’s just in the UK.

I’ve done my bit:

I’ve made my complaint known – via Twitter, via Facebook and via the BBC online complaints system – and I’ve written this blog. BUT the damage is done. Nothing is going to be able to take away their careless portrayal of EGID to the 5 million who watched Holby City on Tuesday night. I would love to meet the researchers and writer for Tuesday’s episode to understand who they spoke to and where their information was sourced. The daily battle that M and other EGID children struggle with bears no ressemblance to what was shown, but sadly that is the viewpoint the public will now hold. I would love for them to spend time living life in the shoes of an EGID family, even for a day, so they could experience a fraction of the living hell that that life can be at times. To comprehend the heartbreaking decisions we EGID parents have to make and the challenges of restricted foods, bowel problems, chronic pain and a multitude of daily medicines our babies deal with. This type of inaccurate and frankly irresponsible representation of a serious illness is not what I associate with the BBC and it is left to parents like me, who have enough daily battles to fight, to raise awareness and voice our concerns.

You can do your bit too: Just share this blog. Make your family; friends; colleagues; strangers in the street aware of it and the rare illness that affects children like M and families like mine. I don’t mind how you do it – RT it; link it to your Facebook page; send it out to your email address list; print it out and pin on noticeboards around your town; or get it emblazoned across the sky – but please do it and help us get our voice heard.

Lessons about the Press

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My foray into the world of the local press over the last week has taught me some interesting life lessons. Last week was all about my appearance on our local BBC radio station to talk about EGID, National Eosinophilic Awareness Week and baking for a child with multiple food allergies. I had some great feedback from people who’d listened to what I had to say and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The pros were all about getting that message out there and raising some much needed awareness about this rare condition. The cons were that I didn’t know what I was going to be asked beforehand as it was all completely unscripted and so missed giving some information that would, in my opinion, have made the interview even better.

Courtesy of http://www.xintelecom.co.uk

Today an article featuring our family appeared in our local paper. The interview hadn’t been the easiest as I took the phone-call at work and could be spotted standing on one leg about 10 feet from the front of the office, with my left hand raised in the air in a vain attempt to get a decent enough signal to be heard at the other end – well maybe not really, but you get the picture! I don’t find explaining EGID the easiest thing in the world when sitting face to face with the person asking the question: there’s a tendency for the individual to begin to glaze over, right up until I mention that M struggles with multiple food allergies as part of his condition. At that point, their interest sparks up again as everybody inevitably knows somebody who can’t eat wheat/gluten/dairy* (*delete as appropriate). Now, imagine trying to discuss a rare and virtually unknown condition over the idiosyncrasies of the mobile phone network – nigh on impossible.

However, despite it all, I’m not disappointed with the article that was written. Okay, so the headline was misleading given our actual aim is to raise some much needed awareness about EGID rather than food allergies, but the reporter did include lots of important and accurate information. I was delighted that she included some words about FABED, without whom I doubt I’d have found the confidence to even approach the press to report about M, as this was the bit that was missing from my radio interview on Friday. To my delight, the paper has also agreed to run a small follow-up piece next week about our fundraising efforts this week and report how much money we have managed to raise for FABED. That will be my opportunity to include FABED’s website details and to encourage our community to consider supporting this worthy cause.

With all the excitement of 2 appearances in the local press within the space of a week, this media mogul decided she needed a break of the mundane task of family dinner and instead tonight’s menu was courtesy of Mike:

	M	Me	Mike
Breakfast	Home-made bread (1 slice) with free-from spread	Sliced pear	Bowl of: Free-from cornflakes Rice milk
Lunch	Sesame snaps Fruit buttons (blackcurrant) Chocolate cupcake (1/3) Home-made rice bread (1 slice)	Sakata rice crackers (6) Cucumber Celery Peanut butter	Brazil nut & sultana cereal bar (2) Mango fruit smoothie Apple
Dinner	2x home-made rice bread (toasted) Baked beans Pears (1/4)	Taco shells (4) Home-made chicken satay (chicken, onion, garlic, courgette, mushrooms, tomato, peanut butter, coconut cream, chilli flakes) Home-made coleslaw (red cabbage, carrot, onion, egg-free mayonnaise)	Taco shells (4) Home-made chicken satay (chicken, onion, garlic, courgette, mushrooms, tomato, peanut butter, coconut cream, chilli flakes) Home-made coleslaw (red cabbage, carrot, onion, egg-free mayonnaise)
Snacks	Sliced pear (1/4) Nakd cocoa orange date bar Dried apricots (3) Sakata rice crackers (2) Peanut butter

An early start to Awareness week

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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:

	M	Me	Mike
Breakfast	Fruit buttons (apple)	Sliced pear	Bowl of: Free-from cornflakes Free=from rice pops Rice milk
Lunch	Roast chicken Sweet potato wedges Corn Peas Carrots Roast parsnips Really not dairy mayonnaise	Roast chicken Sweet potato wedges Corn Peas Carrots Really not dairy garlic mayonnaise	Roast chicken Sweet potato wedges Corn Peas Carrots Roast parsnips Really not dairy garlic mayonnaise
Dinner	Rice bread toast (2) Peanut butter Orgran tinned spaghetti Apple (1/2) Cucumber	Corn tortilla chips Home-made tomato salsa (Tinned tomatoes, onion, garlic, chilli flakes, chilli powder, olives, corn) Home-made cucumber raita (coconut cream, chopped cucumber, chilli flakes)	Corn tortilla chips Home-made tomato salsa (Tinned tomatoes, onion, garlic, chilli flakes, chilli powder, olives, corn) Home-made cucumber raita (coconut cream, chopped cucumber, chilli flakes)
Snacks	Nkd Rhubarb & Custard date bar Fruit string Chocolate cupcake Pear (1/4) Dried apricots		Dried apricots

7 years to diagnosis

Searching for an answer

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