A woman with over 40 allergies – including water – has to use a colour-coded spread sheet to keep track of them all. Chloe Ramsay, 19, was born with lots of food allergies and would even go into anaphylactic shock after eating certain foods – such as bananas and potatoes.While she no longer ends up hospitalised from allergic reactions thanks to treatments in childhood, she currently has a list of 40 things that can cause her mouth and throat to swell up dangerously, or bring her skin up in hives.
They include kiwis, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and grapes. Chloe was diagnosed with ‘pollen food syndrome’ – an allergy to any pollen-derived substances – including sweets, fruits, and even perfumes in June 2023.This explained most of her allergies – but her most unusual is an allergy to water, known as aquagenic urticaria.
When unmedicated, showers cause her to flare up in hives and getting caught in the rain leaves her “wanting to scrape [my] skin off with a knife”. New allergies frequently pop up and their severities can change too – meaning Chloe has to keep track of them with a colour-coded spreadsheet.Chloe, a carer, from Havant, Hampshire, said: “We found out about my first allergies when I was six months old and my mum was weaning me.
“If I was given potatoes or bananas I would go blue and pass out, but luckily my reactions aren’t that bad any more. They change, but currently I can’t eat foods like strawberries, kiwis, fruit juices and I can’t use scented shampoos and body washes.With the water allergy, it just came on one day – I thought I’d used a body wash I was allergic to, but it got worse.
“Whenever I washed my hands I would get massive rashes and felt like ants crawling on my skin. I’ll have to be giving myself injections to treat my allergies for life.”
Chloe remembers frequent trips to hospital as a child to get epipens and medication. When she ate a banana or potatoes she would go into anaphylactic shock and was rushed to A&E.Over years, the hospital used a ‘microdosing’ technique to train the body not to go into anaphylaxis and to reduce her severe reactions.
Some allergies faded away over the years, while new ones emerged – and she stopped being able to eat any fruit at all. The reactions were “invasive” such as swelling lips, redness and a “scratchy” sensation when she breathes.
As a result of what would later be diagnosed as pollen food syndrome, she also needed to avoid perfumes, scented soaps and even wood-smoked meats because of the pollen in the trees used to smoke it. She said: “At school I used to have my own little blue band so the dinner staff knew my allergies.
“They had to make my food from scratch. Now I’m at university, I struggle because a lot of the social stuff is based around food and I have to constantly be checking the menu.It makes me quite anxious to be sitting around food that I know I can’t eat.”
In October 2022, she also started breaking out in hives when her skin touched water. Her reactions were sometimes so intense she would be unable to focus on anything else.She was issued a diagnosis of aquagenic urticaria – an allergy to water on her skin – but luckily, drinking it caused no issues.
She said: “It can be itchy and painful, like having ants crawling on your skin. The allergy came almost suddenly. I would be fine taking showers then one day I started itching and each time was worse.I changed my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, flannel, scrubber, and the water temperature – nothing helped.”
The condition worsened over time and became debilitating for her. She said: “Once I got stuck in the rain waiting for a train and by the time I got inside, I couldn’t stop scratching – I looked like a drug addict.I felt like I wanted to scrape my skin off with a knife. I told even told my mum ‘I can’t do this any more’.”
Last year, she was introduced to a medication injected monthly to treat her allergies – after a medical board approved the strong drug because of her severe situation. Twice a month Chloe has to inject herself with it to keep her allergies at bay – but she may need to be on it for life.With the drug, her water allergy is “almost completely gone” but she still needs to be careful around perfumes and eating pollen-derived substances when on the medication.
She has to keep track of whatever foods she reacts to, and how severely, using a traffic-light colour coded system on an Excel spreadsheet. She said: “So far, nobody has been on that injection for life. Apparently I’m one of the unlucky three per cent that wasn’t completely cured by it.
“I’m so unlucky – I used to get quite upset, but I just have to laugh it off now. I’m allergic to so many things that my parents joke ‘what will you be allergic to next, oxygen?’.”
LIST OF THINGS SHE’S ALLERGIC TO:
- Peanuts
- Hazelnuts
- Soya
- Smoked meats
- Tomato
- Carrot
- Apricot
- Banana
- Blueberry
- Blackberry
- Cherriy
- Cranberry
- Grape
- Grapefruit
- Kiwi
- Mango
- Orange
- Papaya
- Peach
- Pear
- Raspberry
- Strawberry
- Dried apricot
- Dried mango
- Dried banana
- Raisins
- Dried cranberry
- Tinned orange
- Tinned pear
- Tinned peach
- Tinned apricot
- Tinned apple
- Tinned mango
- Fruit pastilles
- Wine gums
- Haribo
- Skittles
- Jelly beans
- Jelly babies
- Water
- Pollen
- Dust
- Sand
- Mould
- Dogs
- Cats
- Glue
- Face paint
- Insect bites
- Perfumes
- Candles
- Air freshener
- Deodorant
- LUSH stores