Young creative launches allergy blog to coincide with national anaphylaxis awareness day

Creative for Ted Baker Daniel Kelly, aged 25, has launched an allergy blog to try and break people’s stigma about what it is like living with a severe food allergy. The release is planned to coincide with Orange Wig Day, the national day of anaphylaxis awareness organised by the Anaphylaxis Campaign.

The Anaphylaxis Campaign previously supported Daniel, when as a final year student at Huddersfield University, he created an allergy magazine titled ‘May Contain’ which aimed to increase awareness of severe allergy and bring it into the modern consciousness.

Daniel said: “I’ve lived with a severe peanut allergy since the age of 5. The idea for this blog goes back to the summer of 2015 when I designed a food allergy magazine to raise awareness for anaphylaxis. This magazine was created for my final major project at University, I chose the issue to raise awareness of anaphylaxis and other allergies.”

As part of the blog launch, Daniel worked with two artists to illustrate both the wrong and right way to administer an EpiPen®, saying:

“It really annoyed me that in movies they always portray administering the adrenaline auto-injector incorrectly. I wanted to highlight this issue in a humorous way, and also show the public how to use the adrenaline auto-injector correctly.

I was very fortunate and thankful to the illustrators for being involved in this project, as I didn’t have any budget – as I say, it was a personal project. However, two of my favourite illustrators wanted to get involved to raise awareness, and they were just as excited as me about it. Both Thomas Hedger and Anastasia Yevtushenko both have a very distinct and interesting style, that’s both direct at portraying a message while also containing elements of humour.

When I contacted Thomas, I didn’t realise that he was an allergy sufferer as well and carried around an adrenaline auto-injector. He knew exactly what I wanted to achieve. It also made me realise that it’s such a small world – more people that you might think carry an adrenaline auto-injector with them.”

Lynne Regent, Chief Executive of the Anaphylaxis Campaign, said:

“I was very impressed with the quality of the ‘May Contain’ magazine Daniel produced as part of his university project a few years ago. I am delighted that Daniel is continuing to use his graphic design skills to raise awareness about severe allergies to coincide with the Anaphylaxis Campaign’s national day of anaphylaxis awareness, Orange Wig Day.

Teenagers and young people are a particular risk group of dying as a result of a severe allergic reaction, which is why we worked so hard to get our Take the Kit film made to highlight the importance of always carrying emergency medication. If you are prescribed adrenaline auto-injectors, make sure you know how and when to use them; they may save your life. Our free online AllergyWise courses are a great resource to help with your training.”

You can view Daniel’s allergy blog at www.may-contain.com and reach him on Twitter and Instagram @maycontain_uk.