Clare Dee is terrified of oranges. The mum of two can’t touch them, or even go near them. “It’s not just the smell,” the 39-year-old tells me. “It’s the whole thing: the pith, the skin and the segments. I avoid them at all costs.”
Even though Clare can happily suck on a lemon, she can’t peel an orange for her children, aged two and five, and her work colleagues at a London tech company know they can’t sit at their desks and peel one in front of her. Clare has never liked oranges, but she thinks her phobia stems from a specific experience in her childhood. She has a vivid memory of being offered orange segments in a clear plastic bag after a netball game, and it made her stomach churn. “I know it’s irrational, but I have no ambition to resolve my orange phobia,” she continues. “It’s difficult, though, at Christmas – oranges are everywhere.”
