It’s 3pm on a warm early summer’s day. You’re in the park, a picnic basket beside you, watching your date tuck into an ice-cream. Birds are singing, children are chuckling playfully nearby. Things are going well: your date’s handsome, kind and the conversation is good. But something’s wrong. It starts as a tickle in the back of the throat. Then your eyes start itching and soon your nose is streaming. Suddenly, you’re sneezing uncontrollably and, hang on, are you … crying? The date you’re with looks at you sympathetically – poor thing – and you quietly wish for the ground to swallow you up.
It’s not an uncommon scenario. In the UK, it’s estimated that about 10 million people suffer from hay fever. Whenever we hit a patch of extended sunny weather, it’s often caveated with warnings of impending so-called “pollen bombs”, when lots of plants release more pollen than usual all at the same time. While the warmer climes are welcome (and perfect date weather), this also means that if you’re a hay fever sufferer, life is about to get complicated.
