In a bid to educate children on allergies, a book based on a little girl from York has been published.
‘Willow Come To Tea?’ is a children’s rhyming book aimed at three to six year olds. It was written by Sylvia Buck, with important input from a little girl called Willow.
Willow is four years old and from York, whose family struggle to live an ordinary life due to her allergies.
Willow was born with severe allergies to milk and egg. She’s has since developed a soya allergy, atopic eczema, asthma, and is ongoing further testing for coeliac.
Willow’s mum, Rachel West, told YorkMix about the realities of dealing with allergies.
The West’s journey with allergies began four years ago. When Willow was just 11 weeks old, Rachel knew something wasn’t right.
“You couldn’t put her down or put clothes on her, her skin was red, she was sick every time she had a bottle and she cried non stop. I literally had her in my arms 24 hours a day,” Rachel said.
With no diagnosis at this point, Rachel found herself overwhelmed with Willow’s unexplained reactions.
“It started off with what looked like cradle cap, so people thought I was being dramatic. I went back and forth with doctors who said it was a viral infection.”
This was during the first lockdown, which meant the support they needed wasn’t there.
“They gave me loads of creams, but the last one completely burnt her. It took a layer of skin off, but by this point we were in a lockdown so they weren’t able to see us.”
Rachel decided to research her daughter’s symptoms and completely changed their home environment.
“We ended up ripping the carpets up, we put wood flooring down, ripped the garden up, put artificial grass down, changed everything to organic cotton, and I bought every cream possible from the internet too,” she explained.
After weeks of desperation, a doctor suggested it could be an allergy to milk.
This then led to Willow’s milk and egg allergies being diagnosed, epipens prescribed, and regular hospital visits for allergy tests.
Some of Willow’s allergies are airborne, which means the family does everything with extreme precaution.
They avoid going out to restaurants, don’t go on family holidays, and spend the majority of their time at home, where they feel it’s safer.
Willow Come to Tea?
Rachel admits she was unaware of the severity of allergies before Willow was born, and believes it down to a lack of education.
“I actually kick myself now because of how obnoxious I once was. I didn’t have a clue about allergies, which is why I think there needs to be more education on it – especially in schools,” Rachel told YorkMix.
The idea for a children’s book came after Rachel read ‘The Adventure of Tommy Bones’, written by Sylvia Buck.
“So Sylvia had written the first book, and my dad had bought it for the kids. I thought it was amazing, so I made a joke to my dad and asked him if he’d go back and see if she wants to do anything for allergies,” she said.
Sylvia is a children’s author from Ryedale, and a family friend of Rachel’s.
To her surprise, Sylvia agreed to it. “I really didn’t think it would go anywhere, I was joking!” Rachel said.
Sylvia however, thought it was a great idea. “I knew Rachel wanted a book written to make kids aware about allergies, something simple for little children to understand what an allergy was. I thought if I do it the same way as I did the Tommy Bones book, which is a rhyming verse, it would work.”
Sylvia spent time researching allergies online, and met Willow to get a feel for her personality to base the book upon.
“I didn’t know how severe allergies could be and nowadays it’s on the news all the time, it’s serious and something needs doing about it. Unless you go looking for information, it’s never presented to you.
“So I educated myself before I wrote the book, just to give me an idea, you know what book some kids go through,” Sylvia said.
‘Willow Come To Tea?’ was published this month, with all of the profits going directly to Allergy UK.
Both Rachel and Sylvia hope the book is shared far and wide, and children learn that allergies exist and not everyone can eat or touch the same things they can.
Sylvia said: “I want kids to learn that everyone’s normal. There’s nothing wrong with a child that’s got allergies, you just have to be careful.
“Hopefully kids will read that, ask the questions and learn what they can and cannot do, and hopefully, it’ll save some lives at the end of the day.”
Sylvia is hosting a book signing, on Saturday 19 October. Along with Sylvia, Rachel, Willow, and Steph (the illustrator) will also be there.
There will be a raffle, a cake sale, a Tombola, and all the profits from the event will be donated to Allergy UK.
It will be held at the Huntington Sports and Social Club from 2pm – 5pm, and everyone is encouraged to come along and get involved.
Purchase ‘Willow come to tea?’ from Waterstones or Amazon.