Wow! All things are possible — we are true believers.
After Emily died, we wanted to climb the highest mountain and send out a warning cry to all other people living or caring for those with food allergies. We wanted to scream out to all those people that do NOT take food allergies seriously. NBC has provided the moutain… thank you Dana and the entire Today Show staff. They are top notch… every part of our experience was wonderful.
Catrina was amazing… our main goal was to tell Emily’s Story… there were many other things we wanted to add… but she told Emily’s Story and she did it as a mother that witnessed the reaction first hand. She performed CPR on her oldest daughter, asked the emergency room personnel to stop the extra extra ordinary means to restart Emily’s heart, and watched her best friend and daughter slip away. She is so STRONG.
Last year, we went to Pittsburgh to support Gina Clowes from www.allergymoms.com in her quest for self carry of Epi’s for children in school. We met so many remarkable people from all over the country working to protect allergy children. We remember talking about the possibilities of getting on the Today Show or Oprah… and a year later it happened. Wow! Hopefully, this is just a start of more publicity, awareness, and education
The e-mail’s we have received from around the Country and World have been wonderful. We wanted to scare parents into vigilance. We wanted to educate those that do not understand the dangers of food allergies. From the feedback and e-mail’s it is clear we accomplished both of those goals.
Thank you for reading… thank you for sending your thoughts and additional important safety ideas.
Together we can Change the World — One Person at a Time.
October 29, 2007 at 1:54 am |
Catina-
You were Amazing! You and Paul are very brave to speak out in the midst of your grief. We allergy parents are grateful for what you’ve done.
You’ve put down another layer of awareness for us.
Take care,
Gina
October 29, 2007 at 3:59 am |
Thanks so much for sharing this story with other food allergy parents especially, and using your grief to educate the public about how serious food allergies are. I have a 3-year-old with multiple FA’s, but he’s never had a serious anaphylactic reaction so I’ve been very lax about carrying his epi-pen and benadryl. Never again. I will print this article and put it in his safety sack with his medicine and require anyone who is going to take care of him to read it. Thanks again so much for going public with this!
Jennifer Kirby
Fort Mill, SC