‘It looks like I’ve gone 10 rounds with a boxer’: when hay fever becomes debilitating – and potentially deadly

Becca Usher with medical kit required to manage her allergies at her home in Dorset. Usher’s hay fever developed into more life threatening allergies that cause anaphylactic shock. Photograph: Abbie Trayler-Smith/The Guardian

Sometimes the season starts as early as mid-April; other times it’s slower to get going. But for Lisa Ventura, June is consistently the cruellest month. “I might get lulled into a false sense of security: ‘Oh, it’s the end of May, it hasn’t started yet’,” she says in a heavy tone. “Then, as if on cue, it’s June the first – and bang.”

Ventura suffers from “debilitating” hay fever. For about three months from early May, she cannot be outside for more than a few minutes before she starts sniffing and sneezing. “When it’s really bad, my eyes look like I’ve gone 10 rounds with a boxer – they are that swollen,” says Ventura.