The parents of a Leeds university student who died after eating a takeaway pizza have demanded to learn the "full truth" about their son's death after an inquest was opened earlier this week.
James Atkinson, 23, had a known peanut allergy and may have suffered anaphylaxis having eaten only one slice of a pizza he ordered from Deliveroo. His parents have called for the "full truth" and pushed for the inquest into their son's death, who they say was always "so careful" with his allergy.
James, who died on July 10, 2020, had ordered food from the same premises before. However, he was not aware that the restaurant had begun using peanut powder as one of the ingredients when making a chicken tikka masala pizza. His parents, Jill Atkinson and Stuart are hoping the inquest will finally reveal some answers about their son's death.
Read More: Parents of Leeds man who died after eating takeaway pizza make food labelling demand
On the Crowd Justice page, the couple from Leeds said: "We have been told by the police that the restaurant may have swapped an ingredient in his pizza on the day he died to a powder containing peanuts.
"We want to find out if that is correct, and if so, how that could have been allowed to happen".
The Atkinson family hope that by examining whether lessons could be learned from James' death, others who suffer from allergies can be better protected. More than two million people in the UK live with a diagnosed food allergy and the number continues to rise.
The family want to ask questions about the effectiveness of Deliveroo's allergen information. Jill and Stuart are asking for clearer allergen information to be available, with an allergy tick-box on the order form.
A pre-inquest hearing was held on Tuesday, May 10 at Newcastle Coroner's Court, the hearing was in-person and listed for one hour. The full inquest is set to take place from October 19 to October 22, 2022.
On the Crowd Justice page, the Atkinson family wrote: "James was a bright and bubbly character who lived life to the full. He loved sports, especially rugby, cycling and running.
"He moved to Newcastle to study computer science and loved it so much he decided to stay, he loved spending time with his friends and brightened up any room.
"He was the life and soul of a party and went out of his way to make sure everyone was having a good time. James loved his time with family and looked forward to coming home to spend time with us all and having long walks with our dog.
"James will be forever missed by all his family and friends.
"We are determined to ensure a full and fearless Inquest into James’ death and want to do all we can in his memory to help increase the protection for allergy sufferers in the UK.
"We have been told that a three-day Inquest into James’ death will be taking place on what would have been his 26th birthday.
"We should be celebrating his life on this day and instead we are going to be asking questions about what happened to him that night.
"We have no words to describe how painful this will be".
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