Early trial results reveal that eating small amounts of trigger foods could build up immunity in children in a life transforming breakthrough, as five hospitals joined a £2.5million clinical trial set up in memory of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse (15) from Fulham, London, who died in 2016 after suffering from severe allergic reaction to sesame seeds in a Pret baguette.

Natasha was travelling with her father and a school friend from London to Nice when she collapsed during a British Airways flight. She bought the sandwich from  Pret a Manger at Heathrow, but a food labelling loophole  left her unaware that the baguette  contained seasame seeds. Natasha’s parents  Nadim and Tanya Ednan Laperhouse set up the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation with the hope of curing allergies through research. The new clinical oral immunotherapy trial uses small doses of everyday food  to train the bodies of children and young people to tolerate an allergen under strict medical supervision.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust which runs several hospitals and clinics in west and central London, is among those taking part in the trial.

Sibel Sonmex-Ajtal, paediatric allergy consultant and principal investigator at Sheffield Chlldren’s Foundation Trust said: “ This study is enabling us to do something we would never have dreamed of doing before. – giving patients foods we know they are allergic to. This treatment is not a cure for a food allergy, but what it achieves is life transforming. To have a patient who has had anaphylaxis to 4mls of milk to then tolerate 90mls within six to eight months is nothing less than a  miracle.”

Full results of the trial is expected only in 2027.  Thomas Farmer (11) who was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when he was one, can eat now six peanuts a day after joining the trial in Southampton. His mother Lauren said: “Knowing that Thomas can now tolerate six peanuts a day has taken away so much anxiety around food.