Allergy Awareness Week 2025: Know the Signs, Save a Life

Allergies come in all shapes and sizes – well, more accurately, all types and severities. From food, to animals, to medication, allergies and intolerances are something that affect an estimated 21 million people in the UK. You have almost certainly passed someone on the street with an allergy or know someone personally – let me add some perspective: the person writing this has a severe allergy and several intolerances. The more you know right?

A little bit won’t hurt!

A little won’t hurt and other things you should not say to someone with an allergy. It may be insulting, because for some of us a ‘little’ will hurt – a lot. Guess what? I am speaking from experience here. I am anaphylactic to eggs, this means if I eat eggs or anything containing it, I will go into anaphylactic shock and without immediate medical attention, I will die. Being told a little bit won’t hurt is so frustrating! I would love to be able to go to a restaurant and order anything I like, but I can’t. I would like to go food shopping and not have to spend ages reading through ingredients lists, but I can’t. I would love to not feel like an inconvenience when going out for food with friends, but I do. This is the reality of living with an allergy.

Allergies are just sensitivities!

Did you know that allergies are an immune response to environmental substances that are usually harmless to most people? Yes, they can be just sensitivities or intolerances – I am intolerant to gluten! But they can also manifest themselves more severely – most of us have an allergy and do not realise. Suffer from hay fever? Severe hay fever is actually known as ‘Allergic Rhinitis’! Anaphylactic allergies are a full body response to an allergen and can be life threatening if left untreated, typically occurring within minutes. Signs that your immune system is potentially reacting to an allergen can be:

Hives
Itchiness
Runny nose
Coughing
Sneezing
Difficulty swallowing
Wheezing

Why is this relevant to me?

As we have briefly touched on, some allergies can be life threatening, even for those that are not, they are still something that should be treated with the same care and attention to ensure that a person does not have to suffer the negative side affects of a reaction. By knowing the signs and how to be allergy aware, you can help save a life and ensure the people around you suffering with allergies feel safe.

This year, for Allergy Awareness Week, the Student Green Office have put together a collection of resources for you to learn more about allergies and help you help others! Know the signs, save a life.

You can find these resources here: