Julianne Ponan suffers from a range of food allergies that limit what she can eat. The 33-year-old is allergic to chickpeas, dairy and all nuts, some of which are airborne reactions.
In line with Allergy Awareness Week (April 24 to 30), Julianne has opened up about living with allergies, detailing the time she ate her favourite ice cream and had anaphylactic shock - a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can develop rapidly.
She said: "They had only just changed their labelling to 'may contain', I didn't realise at all so I ate it. After two bites my whole face completely swelled up and I couldn't breathe - it was pretty bad."
'May contain' labels are common and are found on a lot of foods, they state that the food may have nuts, dairy or shellfish, or has been packaged in a warehouse where these allergens are present.
Julianne doesn't risk eating foods that have a 'may contain' label. On her airborne allergies, she told The Mirror: "It creates a lot of anxiety in public places. I think it's become worse recently, because I had an allergy at an event and they didn't have a first aid responder on site.
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"So they asked me to walk down the road to the pharmacist, I couldn't breathe by the time I got there. Luckily they managed to catch it in time and rushed me to hospital. That was not from eating, that was from just being at an event where they were serving chickpeas but I wasn't told that at the time."
When she was two she ate a cookie at nursery, she was soon unable to breathe and rushed to intensive care. This was the first time her allergies were discovered.
It was found that the reaction was caused by a peanut, but tests also showed other foods she was allergic to. Over time it was discovered she was also allergic to dairy, all nuts, sesame, chickpeas, lentils.
Julianne is the founder of Creative Nature, which makes foods which are top 14 allergen free. Julianne, from Surrey, said: "I found out about more and more as I grew up and started trying more foods. That was quite scary for my mum in particular because we've never had allergies in our family at all.
"She didn't really understand what it was. My mum's from Kenya and my dad from Guyana, sometimes ethnic families don't really understand allergies as much or they believe that it doesn't exist.
"Family members would say 'Just give her a little bit more it'll be absolutely fine'. Obviously, that wasn't the case, my allergies are quite severe."
Beyond her family, Julianne faced isolation at school as teachers would sit her on her own table at lunch to eat alone. This had a knock on effect that peers and their parents would exclude her.
The 33-year-old said: "Birthday parties for me were always an issue growing up, mum would not allow me to go and I used to get really upset. I think it was maybe because she didn't want to cause a burden to the parents.
"I found out more recently when mum said 'well actually, you were asked not to go' but they hid that from me. To know that parents would actively not want to have you there makes you feel really segregated.
"I understand it's a risk but it's really isolating and it creates a more bullying environment." Isolating kids with allergies means youngsters often don't learn about them from peers or in school, which leads to misinformation or ignorance.
Allergies are sometimes conflated with intolerances, which can be painful but do not result in anaphylaxis, which Julianne sees as part of the problem. She explained how she conducted a high street survey and found that half of people didn't know what an auto-injector was and some thought anaphylaxis was a "stomach bug".
"It's not spoken about enough at all," Julianne said. "I think we need to get more awareness on using auto-injectors and noticing the signs. Knowing those things and knowing them early - that could save your friend's life so easily."
Thanks to her efforts in raising awareness around allergies, Julianne has since been awarded an MBE for her work in allergy education. Now, she is rolling out an allergy awareness workshop for schools to tackle misinformation and inform students how to use an auto-injector if someone goes into anaphylaxis.
The 33-year-old said: "Something like this can save lives. It can stop bullying, it can really help more inclusivity. So if we could just introduce a small one day workshop one day assembly in the year, it would make such a difference.
"I think we need more corporations to get on board, there needs to be a complete overhaul in the grocery sector. For free form, it shouldn't be just a lifestyle. This is something that isn't a choice and we need to be pioneering something that caters for multiple allergies."
She added: "Be vigilant, be open to learning about allergies and understanding what they actually mean and how an intense reaction to food can be quite quick and quite serious."
