‘It’s one of the great mysteries of our time’: why extreme food allergies are on the rise – and what we can do about them

More and more youngsters are experiencing serious reactions to everyday foods – and even our pets are suffering. We meet one family who lost a son to anaphylaxis and ask what can be done

When five-year-old Benedict Blythe woke up on the morning of 1 December 2021, he was excited that Christmas was coming. He came downstairs to open the first box in his Advent calendar containing a plastic springy frog and a dairy-free white chocolate (Benedict was allergic to milk, along with many other foods including soy, sesame, eggs and nuts). It was Benedict’s first term at school – Barnack primary in Stamford – and he loved it so much that back in September, he had cried when he learned that there were no classes at the weekend. That morning, he went off cheerfully to school with a small packet of dairy-free McVitie’s Gingerbread Men for snack time. He seemed happy and healthy when he arrived but by the afternoon, he was dead, having collapsed with anaphylaxis.

I meet Benedict’s mother, Helen Blythe, for coffee one spring morning in a country hotel not far from Stamford where she lives. We sit in a quiet back room and talk for two hours. To start with, there’s another person in the room, but when he hears what we will be talking about, he offers awkward condolences and leaves. The random pity of strangers is just one of the many things Helen has had to endure since the death of her son. She tells me that when she meets someone new she has to decide whether to say that she has one child or two (Benedict’s younger sister, Etta, also has multiple allergies). When our coffee arrives, it comes with a piece of buttery shortbread but Helen says I should take hers. She went vegan in 2020 when she realised she effectively was already as a vegetarian cooking for two children with milk and egg allergies.

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