Tag Archives: Olympia

Allergy and FreeFrom Show 2016

8 Replies

I am so glad that we made the decision to visit last weekend’s Allergy and Freefrom Show at Olympia London as we had the most amazing day and made some great finds. The show has always been one of those lovely experiences for the children, where they have been able to try so many of the foods and drinks on offer, although we have constantly had to remind them that they can’t assume that everything is safe, even though so many of the offerings are. IMG_0645[1]This year was no different and G ate her way around the show, delighted to try some old favourites as well as the new products that we hadn’t seen before. It was understandably a much harder show for M this time than ever before, but he pinpointed on the map which stalls he wanted to visit and was thrilled that we managed to find some great new food options for him too. I am also extremely glad that we chose to take the wheelchair with us as it proved to be useful, not just for helping M negotiate the crowds flocking round each stall, but also as a receptacle for the numerous bags of goodies we gained during the day.

The day was also a great chance to catch up with some old friends from the blogosphere and allergy community, though this year I didn’t manage to make the bloggers meet-up arranged for the Saturday morningIMG_0647[1]. It was fantastic to see G and M recognised and welcomed by so many of these lovely individuals and they happily chatted away almost as much as Mike and I did. We spent some time at the Allergy Adventures stand, where Hailey and her crew of cheerful helpers were once again providing entertainment for the children in the guise of paper crafts and story-telling time, although they couldn’t persuade G and M to make the paper lollipops planned. Instead my pair went off-piste and created an array of paper lizard heads (M) and chatterboxes (G) to fill their time, some of which I think were left behind and not just stuffed into pockets and down the sides of the wheelchair.

Between us, we came home with a huge selection of new products for both children to try and I can’t wait to share their reviews of these foods with you, especially those that are not just new to us, but to the market too. We spent the entire day at Olympia, getting in when the doors opened at 10am and leaving as the tannoy announced that the Show was closed at 5pm  and I could quite easily have spent another day IMG_0651[1]discovering all those hidden gems that were tucked away in remote corners of the space. We had taken some safe food for M with us for his lunch as we just didn’t know what would be available at the site and G enjoyed a gluten- and dairy-free pizza from Schar that was cooked to order. The Show now visits 3 UK locations during the year – London, Liverpool and Glasgow – and I would highly recommend a visit if you get a chance to go. It is a brilliant day out for anyone living with food allergies and offers the opportunity to discover so many safe alternatives that often don’t make it to the High Street.

A busy weekend

Leave a reply

This weekend has been pencilled into my diary and the family calendar for several months.  It’s looking to be a busy and important weekend for us and allows us to give a little something back to GOSH too.

allergy-free-show

On Saturday, we are heading bright and early to London to attend the Allergy and Free From Show at Olympia.  I had been told about this show last year, but unfortunately the dates clashed with other plans and so I have been keeping my fingers crossed, waiting to hear about confirmed dates for 2013.  As soon as I knew them, the weekend was booked and I applied for a set of free tickets for us all.

I will give you more of an update after the weekend, but I have to say the line-up looks fantastic.  We are all excited about the potential to find and try some M-friendly foods and M is hoping that we might discover a product we haven’t already tried.  I have been told that this show is a must-do for any family dealing with allergies of any description, so if you should find yourself near Olympia at the weekend with nothing else to do and some allergies to accommodate, I would highly recommend you pop along and find out more for yourself.

That counts as a treat for M, well you have to take your treats where you can find them in our family, so Saturday night we have a treat planned with G particularly in mind.  Those of you who know us, will know that both G and M attend a Stagecoach Theatre School and that the whole family loves nothing more than a trip to the theatre, be it for pantomime, musical, ballet or play.  G and M both learned some songs from the hit musical Matilda in the lead up to Christmas and G has been longing to see the musical ever since.  We had attempted to book tickets back in January when we were visiting GOSH, but it was sold out and so we had no choice but postpone this show for another time.  As soon as we knew the weekend for the Allergy show, I knew we had to try and get tickets for Matilda too and this time we were successful.  The children both know we are going and I can’t wait to see their faces as we experience the magic of this well-known Roald Dahl story.

soldout

Finally, on Sunday we are taking part in the RBC Race for the Kids to raise funds for redevelopment work currently going on at GOSH.  We were late entries for this one as we had planned to spend Sunday at the Allergy show again.  However, during our visit to GOSH in May, M spotted a poster advertising the RBC Race at one of the Underground stations and instantly asked if we could take part.  As we are already in London for the weekend and we know that we will benefit from this redevelopment work during future visits and we had both children on-board and happy to complete the 5K challenge, I instantly signed us up.

One of the challenges that could face us on the day, other than working out where to leave our luggage and how to manage 2 scooters plus bags on the train, is the severe joint aches that M can suffer as a result of the EGID.  These can be close to crippling at times and even though I’m happy to be “mean Mummy” and insist that he works through his pain to continue whatever he’s doing, sometimes he’s just in too much discomfort to be happy.  I’m hoping that the excitement about completing the race, scooting the 5K course and raising funds for “his” hospital will be enough to see him round.  Again, you will need to check back next week to see how well we all did on the day.

Finally, we are raising money for GOSH and so I unashamedly plug the cause and ask that if you feel that you can give anything, however small, to support this much deserving hospital, then we would appreciate it.  My heartfelt thanks go to those who have already so generously supported us.  Remember that every little bit makes a huge difference for the children and families who have reason to go to GOSH.