Hugo’s Life Changing Treatment Fundraiser

Hugo is 8 years old and lives with multiple life threatening allergies. His life is effected daily by his allergies, many of which he is anaphylactic to.

Hugo’s life threatening allergies are; tree nuts, peanuts, soya and legumes (peas, beans, chickpea & lentils). He is also allergic to carrot, peaches, kiwi and suffers with oral allergy syndrome.

Having multiple allergies means that navigating life is extremely difficult and that Hugo has had to miss out on so much already. He is often excluded from things which leaves his feeling upset and alone. Hugo has been in many situations where he hasn’t felt safe and is often worried that people won’t understand his complex allergies or take them seriously.

We are constantly checking labels multiple times a day and making sure his environment is safe for him. Hugo’s allergies are not all ‘main allergies’ which means it is often difficult to read labels and unfortunately legumes are in so much food.

A few years ago Hugo suffered anaphylaxis after accidentally eating a lentil crisp and we had to use his Epipen. Hugo later told me that he was scared that he was going to die. As his mother hearing this was heartbreaking and the worry that this could happen again with a much different outcome leaves us in a constant state of anxiety. We really worry about what the future will look like for him and can’t imagine the struggles he is yet to face.

We are fundraising toward the cost of Hugo being treated in the tolerance induction programme (TIP) at the food allergy institute in California. This is the only place in the world that does this treatment and with multiple allergies. The treatments can take 2-5 years or more and we won’t know until after testing how long it will take for Hugo. It will also depend on how Hugo reacts to treatment.

We will have to visit California every 12 weeks with treatment at home every day in between. In the end Hugo will be able to freely eat whatever he wants without fear of a reaction and anaphylaxis.

We will be raising money for Hugo’s treatment cost for his first year and continue till the treatment is complete. The first year of treatment is an estimated cost of £16,000. If we manage to raise more than this we will be putting it towards the cost of travel and accommodation which we have estimated will double this amount.

We will be selling our house to help fund this life changing treatment so any money raised we would be truly grateful for and would mean the world to us as it would change Hugo’s life so much.

Thank you, Kerry & Richard