Coeliac UK at The Allergy and Free From Show Winter

December 01, 2022

Successful weekend for Coeliac UK at this years Allergy and Free Show in Birmingham.

Our team had an amazingly successful weekend at The Allergy and Free From Show in Birmingham.

We relished the opportunity to connect with so many people from our community, listen to their experiences of following a gluten free diet and hear how we’ve been able to help them live healthy lives.

Membership Team Leader, Libby Willing, said: ‘This year’s show did not disappoint. The Coeliac UK team were kept busy responding to queries, selling our fabulous merchandise and hosting Becky Excell’s book signing – which at one point had a queue literally out the door!’

New members joined across the weekend who all left the stand with their new Welcome Packs safe in the knowledge we are now there to support them in their gluten free journey.

Our volunteer dietitians, Cristian Costas and Natalie Yerlett, were a great source of support and knowledge for those visiting the stand for health and diet advice.

Cristian said: ‘For me it is so important to find ways of making key information accessible to people with coeliac disease and I feel like we really achieved it this weekend.’

Natalie spoke to parents of young children with coeliac disease who were keen to extend their knowledge of the condition. She said: ‘We met so many people with big and small questions about living gluten free and it was an absolute pleasure to help them.’

The two specialists partnered to present our hugely popular talk on Sunday afternoon: ‘Living Gluten Free at Any Age’.

Natalie was pleased with the turnout: ‘Delivering the talk with Cristian was a real highlight and so many people came to chat to us afterwards about how they hadn’t realised what impact the work of Coeliac UK has on research and policy for gluten free living.’

We headed home with tired feet and happy hearts after a successful show and look forward to the next event to connect with our community.

Interested in joining Coeliac UK? Get access to our award winning apps, delicious gluten free recipes and expert advice here https://www.coeliac.org.uk/join-us/membership