Tsar Campaign

This week Tanya Ednan-Laperouse and Emma Turay – two mothers who lost their teenage daughters Natasha and Shante to anaphylaxis – have joined together to call on the Government to appoint an Allergy Tsar. Tanya said: “allergic disease is increasing in the UK to epidemic levels. Yet, for far too long, allergy services have been treated as a Cinderella service in the NHS.  It is time people living with allergic disease in the UK had their own champion.  That’s why I and Emma have joined together to call for the Government to appoint an Allergy Tsar.  Our daughters’ deaths were entirely preventable.”

The parliamentary petition calls on the Government to urgently appoint an ‘Allergy Tsar’ as a public champion and tackle the allergy epidemic now and to:

• Increase the number of specialist allergy clinics across the country
• Develop a National Register of Severe Allergic Reactions detailing all hospitalisations and fatalities, and also a ‘Near Misses Register’ of incidents
• Join up GP and hospital allergy services so that patients have a coherent NHS care pathway
• Train more specialist allergy doctors and consultants, and mandatory training in allergies for all GPs

The campaign centres on a hard-hitting video interview with Tanya and Emma.  The fact that no single person has overall responsibility for allergy services in the NHS or Department of Health was raised by the coroner at the inquest into 18-year-old Shante Turay-Thomas, who died in September 2018 from a severe allergic reaction to hazelnut.

You can support and sign the petition here https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/589716