Allergy Tsar Campaign Timeline

Campaign update: Meeting with the Health Minister

Our campaign for an Allergy Tsar went to the heart of government on 26 June 2023 when we met with the then Health Minister Neil O'Brien MP.

Our founders Tanya and Nadim Ednan-Laperouse were joined by Shante Turay-Thomas's mother Emma and our trustee Professor Sir Stephen Holgate at the Department of Health and Social Care.

It was a highly productive discussion focused on our vision for a national allergy lead and the necessity for a mandatory national register of fatal and near-fatal anaphylaxis cases. The minister was positively engaged and pleased to hear first-hand the views of the allergic community. He has promised to report back to us and we are optimistic that real progress is being made.

Thank you, everyone, for your ongoing support. Together we can, and will, bring about the change that is so urgently needed.

Now is the time to act.

We’re pleased to announce that our campaign calling for the appointment of an Allergy Tsar as a champion for people living with allergies was debated in Parliament on Monday 15th of May 2023.

It is the second time that MPs have brought our call for a national allergy lead to Westminster following our parliamentary petition which received more than 20,000 signatures and widespread media coverage.

We need an allergy Tsar now - that’s why Emma Turay and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE have published an ‘Open Letter’ to the Health Secretary.

Our campaign calls for an Allergy Tsar to:

Act as a public champion to tackle the allergy epidemic now.
Advocate for an increase to the number of specialist allergy clinics, as part of both children and adult services – one in every part of the country.
Work with Government to achieve mandatory reporting of all anaphylaxis events presenting to hospital, to support comprehensive investigation of fatal and near-fatal anaphylaxis events.
Work with stakeholders to better align primary care and hospital allergy services so that patients have a coherent NHS care pathway.
Advocate for more specialist allergy doctors and consultants, and mandatory training in allergies for all GPs.

“Allergies are now an epidemic in this country. It is time people living with allergic disease had a champion in Government.”

- Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE & Emma Turay

An ‘Open Letter’ to the Health Secretary from Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE & Emma Turay

“Our daughters’ deaths were entirely preventable.”

- Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE & Emma Turay.

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died following a severe allergic reaction to a baguette sandwich. Natasha was 15 years old.

Shanté Turay-Thomas died following a severe allergic reaction to eating a hazelnut. Shanté was 18 years old.

As mothers, we have come together for change so that our tragedies never happen again. No single person has overall responsibility for the well-being of allergy sufferers in either Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England or anywhere else. This has to change.

We welcome the debate in Parliament, but we, along with other campaigners, clinicians, academics, coroners, plus the 20,000 people who signed our petition for an Allergy Tsar, need action not words.

The need for an Allergy Tsar is supported by the National Allergy Strategy Group, who represents the British Society for Allergy & Clinical Immunology (BSACI) and national allergy charities Allergy UK and Anaphylaxis UK.

The campaign for an Allergy Tsar was first launched in July 2021.

In July 2021 The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation first launched the campaign for an Allergy Tsar to be appointed as a champion in Government for people living with allergic disease.

The fact that no single person has overall responsibility for allergy services in the NHS or Department of Health was first raised by the coroner at the inquest into Emma’s daughter Shanté Turay-Thomas, who died aged 18 from a severe reaction to hazelnut in September 2018.

In October 2021, the influential All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Allergy launched its long-awaited report into allergy services and backed our call for a national lead - another name for an Allergy Tsar - to be appointed to lead a new strategy for allergy services. In promising to consider the report and meet with MPs, campaigners and clinicians, and the then Health Minister singled out the campaigning of Natasha’s parents.

During a parliamentary debate on the Health and Social Care Bill in 2021, the then Shadow Health Minister brought an amendment calling for an Allergy Tsar - the amendment was narrowly defeated. The then Health Minister promised to raise the issue with NHS England.

Our parliamentary petition garnered over 20,000 signatures from people in every constituency in the UK. Hundreds of people sent letters and tweets to their MPs sharing their personal stories to support the call for an Allergy Tsar. The then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, wrote to us stating that the position was being kept "under review".

Following a positive meeting between the APPG and the then Health Minister on 11 January 2022, Natasha’s Foundation has been actively engaging with ministers and senior executives at NHS England calling on them to deliver the Allergy Tsar and to make allergy services and treatments a priority within the NHS in order to prevent avoidable deaths and ill health.

This is not about politics or money, it is simply about the Government doing the right thing. Please, if you haven't already done so, you can continue to take these steps to support the campaign. Write to your MP, sign up to the Natasha’s Army newsletter, share your allergy story to raise awareness or make a donation to support our campaign efforts. Thank you.

Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, a trustee of Natasha’s Foundation and one of the world’s leading allergy researchers, said:

“Despite this growing burden of disease, there has been little investment in NHS allergy services for the last 20 years. A shortage of allergy specialists and clinics and inadequate allergy training among GPs means many patients with allergies fail to get the care and support they need.

“Appointing an Allergy Tsar to act as a champion for people with allergies would be an important first step in addressing this unmet need.”

The campaign, fronted by Tanya Ednan-Laperouse and Emma Turay who both lost their daughters to anaphylaxis, was featured on BBC Breakfast, BBC Online, ITV News, The Daily Mail, The i Newspaper, The Evening Standard and many other regional outlets. It was backed by a series of powerful video interviews with the two bereaved mothers.