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Holiday Campaign
Holidays are usually the event that everyone looks forward to, yet calls to our helpline appeared to indicate that for people with asthma and allergies; holidays in fact, present another series of challenges to be faced.
We felt that it was important to understand the problems that this presents to the people caught up in the increasing ‘allergic march’. With 1 in 3 of the population now suffering at some time in their life from an allergy and a staggering 40% of children being affected it is almost inevitable that family holidays are becoming more and more affected each year.
We decided that we should ask over 3000 people, of which over 10% responded; a series of questions to help us understand the problems they face. From this we hoped to discover if there are services that we might be able to develop to assist them in making holidays the enjoyable experience they should be.
Hopefully this survey will serve to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by people with allergies and asthma when considering holidays. We have listened and we believe that we can improve some of the issues raised.
The results of the survey have been compiled into our new Holiday Campaign Report which can be downloaded here. (2457Kb PDF Document)
We have highlighted the launch of this report with a press release, the details of which can be found here.
By analysing all the data received from this survey, it was apparent that the people needed more information regarding allergies for when travelling abroad. As pollen is one of the major triggers for allergic rhinitis, we have produced two calendars in collaboration with Professor Jean Emberlin, Director of the National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit at Worcester University to develop these calendars, which explain the different allergens to look out for in European countries at various times of the year.
These great new resources for travellers can be downloaded by clicking on the appropriate link below:
European Holiday Destination Pollen Calendar - Grass Pollen (17Kb PDF Document)
European Holiday Destination Pollen Calendar – Trees (30Kb PDF Document)
Finally from the survey we have produced a very informative fact sheet to accompany the Holiday Campaign. This will give you plenty of tips on how to deal with your allergies when going on holiday.
To download this fact sheet please click here (113 Kb PDF Document)