A 27-year-old who developed a rare cold allergy after Covid-19 which leaves her unable to drink chilled beverages or exercise outdoors in winter had her first anaphylaxis attack after a McDonald’s McFlurry. Hanna Newnham, from Brighton, first noticed symptoms of cold urticaria – hives that appear after cold temperature exposure – after recovering from Covid-19 in 2020.
A study published in open-access journal Nature Communications in April 2024 claims to show “comprehensive evidence for the association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent incident allergic outcomes”. Hannah started experiencing progressively worse cold-exposure symptoms including angioedema (facial swelling) and anaphylaxis, which causes her throat to constrict, leaving her struggling to breathe.
Despite high-dose antihistamines, steroids and an EpiPen, Hanna’s attacks are becoming more frequent and severe. She is waiting to see an immunologist through the NHS and hopes to be prescribed XOLAIR (omalizumab), which would cost £6,000 every six weeks.
In the meantime, given the role exercise has played in her 500-day sobriety journey, Hanna is determined to continue staying fit – despite the fact her own sweat or cold air from a treadmill at the gym can trigger an attack. Even if my throat closes, I’ll keep working out – no one can stop me,” Hanna told PA Real Life.
Hanna’s addiction began with alcohol in her first year studying Education at the University of Cambridge in 2018 – although she says tutors and welfare staff were supportive. After graduating and moving to Glasgow in 2022, Hanna – who is gay – became invested in going to the gym and exercising outdoors after a bad breakup.
Two months after recovering from Covid-19 in April 2020, she first developed hives in response to the cold after swimming in the sea that summer. Hanna’s first anaphylaxis attack was triggered by a McDonald’s milkshake and a McFlurry in December 2020, both now off-limits foodstuffs along with coconut Little Moons, which she misses.
After consuming the McDonald’s items, she had an itchy throat, cough and throat closure – but did not know what it was at the time. “Especially when people are getting Deliveroos I have to be like ‘I can’t eat ice cream’,” she said.
“I’m thinking all the time about what I can and can’t eat which is annoying.”
As winter set in, her bouts became more frequent, prompting Hanna to seek an official cold urticaria diagnosis in February 2021, which she got along with a prescription for fexofenadine (antihistamine medication). That was when Hanna found herself living with a new flatmate who took drugs.
“I didn’t really use drugs before she moved in, and she used a lot, and it was a very toxic friendship that we had,” Hanna explained. “I was doing a lot of coke, mostly, and smoking as much weed as I could get my hands on, and also drinking as much as I could.”
After a year, Hanna eventually saw that her living situation was unhealthy, and extricated herself and moved back to Brighton to live with her grandmother, replacing her destructive habits with daily exercise. “I probably jumped from one addiction to the other, but at least it’s a healthy one,” said Hanna.
Over the last four years, Hanna’s reaction to the cold has worsened – with cold air from treadmills, cold water from the fridge, and even her own sweat triggering attacks. Hanna can experience symptoms such as facial swelling or hives daily, particularly during winter months, if she does not carefully control her core temperature and her environment.
If an attack is severe, her reactions can progress to anaphylaxis – with her throat threatening to close up. Her antihistamine medication has become less effective, so she was recently put on steroids and given an EpiPen for severe reactions.
Steroids have increased her appetite, which worries her given her reduced ability to exercise. She has been deemed unsafe to work in winter by the agency that was previously employing her, after being forced to use her EpiPen last October while playing with kids outdoors at a forest nursery school.
She does not pay rent as she lives with her grandmother, and manages her condition by using a kettle in her room, keeping the heating on, and using a heated blanket. Hanna cannot hike or run outdoors if it is too cold – she learned this the hard way after a recent anaphylaxis attack while hiking to Seven Sisters on a sunny winter’s day in February.
“I got on the bus back, and I thought I could make it home, but I started feeling really faint and my whole face was so swollen,” she said. It was something special, so I just got off at the hospital, and then administered my EpiPen to myself as I walked in.”
Hanna has to be monitored by hospital staff for eight hours after each time she uses an EpiPen, so is keen to avoid “boring” hospital trips as much as possible. She speaks to her GP weekly, and was recently prescribed asthma medication to see if that helps her breathe better.
“I feel like they’re just throwing different meds at me because they’re not 100% sure what to do,” she said. Despite the obstacles, Hanna remains determined to live as normally as possible.She has adapted her exercise routine to include more at-home workouts like yoga, gymnastics and even Just Dance on an old Wii Fit.
“I’ve got so much energy, that’s why I work with kids,” she said. “I’m always running about, and now I have nothing to put that energy into.”
While she waits for a specialist appointment, Hanna is holding out for warmer weather. She is ultimately hoping to be prescribed XOLAIR on the NHS, an injectable prescription medicine used to treat chronic spontaneous urticaria.