Five NHS hospitals have so far joined a £2.5 million clinical trial, thanks to funding from the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation. Her parents, Nad

Scientists celebrate ‘first step’ in making food allergies history

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2024-05-09 15:00:06

Five NHS hospitals have so far joined a £2.5 million clinical trial, thanks to funding from the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation.

Her parents, Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, campaigned for a change in food laws and set up the foundation with the hope of curing allergies through research.

Now the new clinical oral immunotherapy (OIT) trial is using everyday foods to build up an allergy patient’s tolerance over time.

Sibel Sonmez-Ajtai, paediatric allergy consultant and principal investigator at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This study is enabling us to do something we would never have dreamed of doing before – giving patients the foods we know they are allergic to.

“To have a patient who has had anaphylaxis to 4mls of milk to then tolerate 90mls within six to eight months is nothing less than a miracle.”

Thomas Farmer, 11, who was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when he was one, can now eat six peanuts a day after joining the trial in Southampton.