Raising Awareness of Severe Food Allergies
A woman is using social media to shed light on her serious food allergy, sharing a troubling experience from her school days where Snickers bars were “snapped in half and thrown” at her to challenge her peanut allergy.
Chloe Dickson, 26, from Brighton, suffers from anaphylaxis, a condition that can lead to anaphylactic shock when she’s exposed to peanuts.
With her Peanut Free Zone initiative gaining millions of views online, she has faced backlash, including death threats and being labeled “selfish” due to some people’s misunderstandings about her allergy. “In secondary school, kids didn’t believe I’d react without eating something,” Ms. Dickson recounted.
Documenting Daily Life
Through TikTok and Instagram, she shares her everyday experiences, from traveling by train and plane to working in a café and managing allergic reactions. A particularly alarming incident in a pub, during which none of her friends knew how to use her EpiPen, served as a significant motivator for her to elevate awareness of her condition.
According to the charity Anaphylaxis UK, approximately one in 50 children and one in 200 adults in the UK has a nut allergy, with varying degrees of severity.
Feeling ‘Like a Secret’
Having been employed in the hospitality sector since her teenage years, Chloe noted she had been let go previously for a restaurant’s insistence on serving dishes that contained peanuts. Being deemed “too high risk” by potential employers has caused her considerable anxiety, making her condition feel somewhat like a secret. In response to the negativity she has encountered online, Chloe expressed, “I’m just a human and enjoy working in a café. I want to be doing fun and exciting things too.”
Now employed at Moksha Caffe in Brighton, a peanut-free establishment created five years ago to support her, she praises the management for their understanding. She aims to advocate for Brighton hospitals to adopt peanut-free policies.
The Need for Peanut-Free Spaces
In the UK, eateries serving “non-prepacked food” are mandated to disclose information regarding 14 major allergens, as set out by the Food Information Regulations 2014. Paul Carey, a representative from the allergy advocacy group Owen’s Law, emphasized that allergen information should always be provided in writing at the point of ordering, without requiring the customer to ask. He is pushing for this practice to be legally enforced, originating from a tragedy where his son Owen died after unknowingly consuming a burger that contained buttermilk on his 18th birthday.
Regarding the establishment of dedicated peanut-free zones, Mr. Carey remarked, “If people with allergies want to feel safe, then going to a place which is guaranteeing that can only be a good thing.”
