Every time Stephanie Hulme goes food shopping she reads every single food label to check that a product doesn't include an ingredient that her son is allergic to. Even if it is, something the family has had before, there is no guarantee that an allergen hasn't been added to the ingredients list.
William Hulme was just three-years-old when he suffered his first anaphylactic shock. He was drinking a smoothie that he had consumed before, but a new ingredient, flax seed, had been added to the mix. Mum Stephanie said it was a terrifying experience and the first that has led to a lifetime of military-level planning to keep him alive.
William is now 10-years-old, and is allergic to flax seeds, peanuts, mustard, sesame, tree nuts, chick peas, pulses, pollen, grass, trees, and dust mites. The family doesn't eat out at restaurants and most food has to be cooked from scratch to be sure there is no cross-contamination.
Stephanie, 39, carries out a deep clean of their home three times a week to make sure it is free of dust mites, and William has to take extra anti-allergen medication through the summer months so he can play outside at school. These are all precautionary measures that have to be taken to ensure that William's allergies don't act up.
"For him, if he was exposed to any of these allergens, he would go into anaphylactic shock. All the patch tests he has had he has reacted quite badly to them, so it is likely the reaction would be severe," Stephanie told WalesOnline.
Because of this, William carries a double epi-pen and takes numerous daily medication to keep his allergies at bay. For a young child, this has multiple challenges, and has completely changed his life. Even so, they have had a couple of close calls where William has needed to be admitted to hospital.
William was living in Canada when he has his first ampholytic shock, and at the time he was attending nursery, but Stephanie said they put a stop to that straight away due to the fear of not being able to control what he ate. He had been exposed to allergens before and had not had a reaction up until this point. Stephanie admitted he even loved Nutella and peanut butter, but can no longer have these foods.
When they moved back to the UK, it was really hard for the family to find a nursery in Cardiff for William due to the additional rules around avoiding cross-contamination and administering epi-pens, but his current school has taken it all on board and has even held allergy awareness sessions with the children.
"He is able to sit with other children. There are schools where children with allergies have to sit on a certain table or have to eat out of the room. It can be really hard for young children to deal with this social exclusion."
Outside of the military-level planning that is required to keep William alive and safe, Stephanie said one of the biggest challenges for a child with an allergen is the emotional impact it can have.
"It is always hard when you go to a birthday party and your plate looks different to everyone else's," she said. "Play dates are really hard, I have to talk the parents through everything to make sure they know how to use an epi pen.
"There are only one or two restaurants we go to but we mostly cook at home. We have a list of food that we stick to each week, but even so, we read all the labels each time to double check as sometimes new ingredients creep in or there's new advice around cross-contamination."
The amount of soft toys on William's bed even needs to be restricted due to his allergen of dust bites. Stephanie has learned so much about allergens over the years, she is now part of a voluntary group across the UK called Allergy Assembly with Creative Nature.
It goes into primary schools and holds assemblies to teach children and schools about allergies.
"When he was first diagnosed, all I could find was the worst-case scenario. I want to share our story in a positive light," she said.
"William's friends are all aware of allergies now, and they have learned what to look out for if children are looking poorly, they know what an epi-pen is, they know when to find an adult or a teacher, and this is what we want to share with primary schools across the UK, not only so children know what to look out for, but so they are aware of allergies."
