You would think that after being diagnosed with coeliac disease then discovering I had lactose intolerance that my poor, delicate stomach would have sorted itself out. Alas, no, it blimmin hadn’t. (Anyone who knows me knows I don’t have luck on my side.) I was still scoring pain on the toilet as 10 out of […]

Dirty burgers from questionable sources, late-night pizza dripping with cheese, sticky toffee pudding swimming in custard. For 27 years I stuffed my face with the lot. Then a doctor dropped the coeliac bomb. And my diet  changed overnight. Imagine Ronald McDonald waking  in Gwyneth Paltrow’s body. Or if Hannibal Lecter was put on a raw […]

It took 22 gut-wrenching years until I was finally diagnosed with coeliac disease. And knowing any children I would have had a one in 10 chance of being coeliac too, I was on high alert with my baby girl. I didn’t want Megan to have to endure years of horror and being told it was […]

Remember when ordering food was easy? Now, it can take me three or four awkward conversations with staff before I can be fed. Sometimes, I have to educate staff and alter their menu completely. Sometimes I am brave and just go for it straight away “Hi. I am a ridiculously awkward person to feed, unfortunately. […]

Usually people get stressed-out by using the toilets at a festival or getting covered in mud. Last year at Glastonbudget – a tribute band festival in Leicester – they were the least of my worries. Friends thought my husband and I were mad for taking our two-year-old along to a festival and camping. And even […]

As a coeliac, there’s a real fear factor when eating at other people’s houses. I try to do a lot of it myself when I’m there and take along my trusted friends and saviours (toaster bags, gluten-free bread and cereal, Lactofree butter, cheese and milk) everywhere I go. I am not risking not being able […]