Calls grow for allergy tsar after teen died following sip of Costa hot chocolate
Hannah Jacobs, 13, died within hours of taking a sip of the drink on 8 February 2023.
Last week, an inquest found there had been a ‘failure of communication’ between the coffee shop staff in Barking, east London, and Abimbola Duyile, Hannah's mother, who ordered the drink and told the barista it had to be made with soya milk.
Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: “The root cause of this death is a failure to follow the processes in place to discuss allergies combined with a failure of communication between the mother and the barista.”
Costa Coffee said it had ‘listened to everything the coroner has said’ and will ‘respond appropriately’.
Following the inquest, Duyile joined calls for the Government to introduce an allergy tsar to co-ordinate responses to allergy management, diagnosis and care an allergy tsar to co-ordinate responses to allergy management, diagnosis and care.
A statement released by Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, co-founders of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, said: “Along with Hannah’s grief-stricken mum Abi and on behalf of other parents who have lost children to food allergies, we once again urge the government to appoint an allergy tsar – a national champion for the one in three people who live not just with food allergies, but all types of allergic disease including asthma and eczema.”
Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse are the parents of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 after suffering a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked into a Pret-a-Manger baguette.
In an interview with The Times, the pair confirmed they had written to the new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to request a meeting on the matter.
During this year’s general election, The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation released an open letter calling on the next UK government to appoint a leader to act as a champion for people with allergies.
The letter received support from Love Island contestant Jack Fowler, who has a severe nut allergy; and The Only Way Is Essex star Megan McKenna, who suffers with an allergy to wheat.
