A 20-year-old Briton died of an illness that made him allergic to almost everything.
- Allergy can result in different symptoms: skin (eczema, redness), respiratory (asthma, allergic rhinitis), digestive (diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain).
- To date, more than 280 cases of eosinophilic gastroenteritis have been reported worldwide, mainly among the Caucasian population, according to the Orphanet website.
He was nicknamed the “most allergic boy in the world” by his mother. Britain’s Paul Braithwaite died this week at the age of 20 following a “rare and debilitating form of eosinophilic gastroenteropathy”a pathology diagnosed when he was just a baby.
Allergic to sun and dust
At the time, he was the only known Briton to have the disease, and the first recorded case since 1906. announced the British newspaper The Sun. It must be said that the conditions of his pathology were particularly disabling: in addition to repeated vomiting, the only contact with sunlight, grass, fabrics, dust or even animals could cause violent rashes. skin.
Not to mention the dozens of types of food he was totally allergic to. It is finally a cancer which will have taken away the young man, after years of battle.
Tributes
Her mother Kelly told The Sun: “He had every allergy there was, his skin was bright red and he was in pain almost daily. His growth was stunted because of the medication he was taking: at the age of 20, he was still wearing clothes for children aged 10 to 11. » Nevertheless, he “faced it with the best attitude possible and joked about everything.”
His courage in adversity had also earned him countless fans, such as Fabio Capello, the former coach of the England football team, or Eamonn Holmes, the journalist and presenter of the show This Morning. . All paid him a last tribute, before his burial scheduled for July 18.
