A mum has told how she fears for the life of her six-year-old daughter when she goes outside as she is allergic to the cold and could die on the school run.
Kelsey Quant, from Exeter, suffers from a rare condition called chronic cold urticaria meaning that she can't be outside for more than a few minutes without breaking out in painful hives and her throat swelling.
Her allergy is so severe that mum Kimberley Quant says she has to completely wrap up little Kelsey and run to their car or her exposed skin will be covered in blisters.
The 33-year-old says she and husband Freddie Quant, 32, are considering a move to Cyprus out of fear that the cold could send their daughter into anaphylactic shock.
The family are currently spending £18 on energy bills every day in a bid to keep the youngster warm and are forced to keep her home from school during the winter.
Kelsey has also been in tears this week watching sisters Ella, 15, Leah, 13, and Freya, eight, play out in the snow.
Kimberley said: "She could die. With the current statistic, only 2% of people with the condition get anaphylaxis but due to her getting throat swelling, the specialist thinks she'll be one of the unlucky ones.
"At this time of year, there's nothing I can do. It's way too cold for her to go out. We keep her home from school because it's too cold for her to go in and it's too much for the school without disrupting other pupils.
"She wears thermal clothing, hats, scarves and gloves even in the summer and I take the car everywhere so if she has a reaction, I can pop her in and warm her up and stop her from reacting.
"Even walking from the front door to the car door which is about 20 feet is nerve wracking because she will blister on her face or whatever body part is on show. I wrap her up and run.
"We've considered moving out of the UK. Every year we take a holiday abroad for a week and we don't need to give her any medication and she doesn't react. I'd love to move to Cyprus.
"The other part we're thinking about is the health care. She might not get over there what she gets over here. It's the best of both evils because if we do move abroad, she might not get the healthcare she needs but if we don't, she'll definitely have reactions. When it's got to the stage she's needed an epi pen we don't know whether to take the risk.
"I absolutely dread this time of year. My energy bills are horrendous. I have to keep the heating on 26 degrees 24/7. My electric bill in one day is £18. It's horrendous.
"It's something we have to do, we can't let her suffer. It's either that or have a very ill child."
Kelsey has been prescribed an epi pen in case she goes into anaphylactic shock as well as taking antihistamines and medication to open her airways.
She started showing signs of an allergic reaction when she was just a day old and was in and out of hospital 52 times before she'd turned two. Doctors were left baffled by what could be causing the reaction but they finally got a diagnosis when Kelsey was three after a nurse noticed she started to react after nipping outside to the hospital play area.
Kimberley said: "She gets a systemic rash, blisters and welts all over her body and it affected her chest. Her hives go a scalded red colour, her cheeks go red like they've been slapped then she starts blistering.
"She gets it from head to toe and there's no hiding it. We thought it would get better and it could have been a new-born thing. She was reacting to something and we didn't know what. It's been a bit of a nightmare.
"Something that sticks with us to this day is when we tell people she's allergic to the cold, you can tell by their faces that they want to laugh. That's the exact reaction that we had. It sounds stupid."
The family are sharing Kelsey's story to raise awareness of the condition as they say the biggest battle is convincing people that its real.
Kimberley said: "We went to Cornwall last summer and she looked like she had been scalded on her body because of a reaction. People were shouting at me that we should have put sun cream on her. We get abuse all the time from people who just assume that we haven't covered her in sun cream.
"People can be so ignorant to it. That's the worst thing about it. I have a blue badge to park close to the school door to get her straight in the warm. I've had sh*t from people for that. That's the nature of it not being known about much."
