20 Years Of The Anaphylaxis Campaign 1994 - 2014
2014 marks a very important milestone for the Anaphylaxis Campaign as we celebrate our 20 year anniversary.
The Campaign was founded in 1994 by a small group of parents led by David Reading OBE. David's daughter, Sarah, tragically died aged just 17 from anaphylaxis to peanut in October 1993. Her death and others that were also triggered by nuts became national news at the time and it was clear there was very little awareness of how serious allergy could be.
The Campaign quickly took on a life of its own, accruing 1,000 members in just six months. We began lobbying government to provide better allergy care, including a meeting with Nicholas Soames, Minister of Food in early 1994 and set about convincing the food industry of the importance of clear accurate food labelling. A helpline for those affected went live - over the last 20 years this helpline has taken over 100,000 calls. We produced accurate information about allergens and made this available and accessible to everyone. A programme of workshops and support groups was launched to support patients, their families and carers. We began training school nurses on how to safely manage and care for allergic pupils. The list of activities goes on and on and is still growing today.
Although the achievements of the Campaign are many, our original objective remains the same - to help people with severe allergies live their lives. We hope this is a sentiment shared and appreciated by our members and other allergy patients as it has always been. We can only continue to work towards our goal of making the world a safer place for those affected by anaphylaxis by having support, so thank you to everyone who has been a member, raised money for us or donated to the Anaphylaxis Campaign over the past 20 years.
David Reading continues to work with the Campaign one day a week providing his expertise and knowledge in his role as our Vice President. Watch our film on our YouTube channel to see David speaking about the how the Campaign began
This year we will be running lots of events and special projects to celebrate this important milestone so keep an eye on our website and twitter feed @Anaphylaxiscoms.
We need support to ensure we can continue to support those living with severe allergies in the future - please donate, or join us as a member.
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