Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Hello, my name is Sarah and I am an allergy mum. Twelve years ago my eldest daughter Lauren was born and during her first year of life she was diagnosed with eczema and an allergy to cow’s milk and egg.

An allergy is where your body reacts to something that’s normally harmless like pollen, dust or animal fur. The symptoms can be mild, but for some people they can be very serious.

Facing those first allergic reactions was scary and life changing. I still remember the many hours spent in supermarkets checking ingredients and over the years learning a new way of life.

During early childhood, Lauren went on to develop asthma and allergies to cat, grass and dog and more recently mould and almond. We have encountered several scares along the way and Lauren is currently on lots of medication to control her daily symptoms, along side many control measures we have in place at home.

Lauren is due to have further allergy testing to a variety of foods at the beginning of June.

Living with allergies has a huge impact on daily life, for example packing a medicine bag including EpiPen’s everywhere you go, having to check all food and non-food products ingredients each and every time as recipes change and different brands vary. Always having to plan ahead, packing safe snacks and meals when eating away from home, good hand washing, remembering cross contamination, not sharing food or drink, not being able to attend playdates/sleepovers at friends or family houses with pets, frequently keeping on top of repeat prescriptions both at school and home, updating a great number of school medical forms and arranging meetings with school teachers. Then there is booking time off school and work for medical appointments and not feeling confident enough to travel abroad anymore.

As an allergy mum, every day is full of anxiety and fear but with some great support around me, we live “our normal but different lives” to the best we can. Lauren is such a beautiful, caring, funny and talented daughter. I am turning 40 at the end of June and have booked a skydive on my birthday to raise some money for Allergy UK. Allergy UK is a British medical charity dedicated to helping adults and children with their allergies.

If you are able to donate, it really would be appreciated and mean so much to myself and Lauren.

Thank you for your support!