A young girl who has over 50 life-threatening allergies hopes that she will soon be able to eat and do what ever she wants thanks to a groundbreaking treatment.
Six-year-old Lola Jones has had to live her life being very cautious about the world around her because touching or even smelling certain foods could be lethal. Alongside her range of allergies she also suffers with other atopic diseases such as severe eczema, asthma and hayfever.
Despite this, the young girl from Portadown does her best to enjoy life and many people in her community were unaware of the lengths she has to go to to stay safe because she is so happy and outgoing.
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Lola's allergies were first discovered when she was just six months old when she became very sick, with her parents being told that she should avoid all foods that could put her at risk. They have since had testing that shows that she has 37 food allergies and 23 environmental ones.
Since then she and her family have had to plan their lives around ensuring that Lola remains safe, with her mum Emily telling Belfast Live that while Lola understands why she cannot do the same things as other children, it can still be very difficult for her.
In order to give Lola the life that she deserves, her parents enrolled her in a groundbreaking clinic, the Food Allergy Institute in California, with the hopes of giving their daughter some relief from her allergies after seeing the successes of other families on social media.
Emily said: "When people look at Lola they see a happy and bubbly young girl who loves her sport and may not realise the effort that she has to make in order to keep herself. There are many things that are normal for kids to do going up that she has never had a chance to experience and as she gets older this becomes more difficult for her.
"We would do anything to give her the life that she deserves and a few years ago started researching the Food Allergy Institute in California and following some of the families attending it on social media to see how things go for them. After seeing the remarkable changes that it had with these children, who were able to overcome deadly allergies, we decided that we would do our best to get Lola enrolled to see if it would work for her too.
"While she has only been going through the treatment for a few months now, the changes that we have seen so far have been incredible. Last year if Lola even smelt a nut she would have a serious allergic reaction, but now she is having a Brazil nut everyday and we really cannot believe the progress she is making.
"She always tells us how excited she is to try new foods when her allergies go away and this has given her so much hope that her life won't be as restricted as it is anymore."
While the treatment at the American institute is proving to work well for Lola, it is very expensive and will cost here family £16,000 a year.
Emily says that she and her husband are "working flat out" in order to save up the money for Lola's treatment and they have received a huge amount of support from their community in Portadown and local businesses.
Emily continued: "This treatment is still in its early stages but so far we are thrilled with the results, but it is very expensive and will cost us £16,000 a year and that is not including having to pay to go over to California but it will be worth it if we can change Lola's life for the better.
"When we are home we have been working flat out in order to save up the money we need and Lola has had so much support from our local community and the businesses here who have done so much for us. We are so thankful for all of the donations and help that we have received as Lola wouldn't be making the progress she is without it."
If you would like to support Lola and her family you can do so via this link.
You can also follow Lola's journey on her Facebook page.
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