Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
Fergie, as the Duchess of York is affectionately known, recently became a patron of theNatasha Allergy Research Foundation, a charitable organization that campaigns for allergy research and safety, named in memory of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse.
“My uncle, age 10, died of a crab sandwich at Brancaster Beach and my father was never the same after that,” she explained to the local outlet. “And my grandmother never forgot John — he was called John.”
Because her uncle’s death occurred many years before she was born, Fergie said she did not think much of the tragedy and how much her grandmother emotionally endured until she started spending time with Natasha’s parents.
“It wasn’t until working with Nadim and Tanya and being with them that I suddenly realized, ‘Can you imagine what my grandmother went through?'” she shared with the outlet. “In those days, forget it.”
“He was out on the beach with [his] nanny — he wasn’t even with my grandmother or father — he was on his own with [the] nanny and he died within minutes,” she added.
Since announcing her partnership with the foundation, Fergie has been vocal on social media, urging her followers to use Natasha’s death as “a watershed moment” to help “promote research.”
“An honour to join Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s parents Nadim and Tanya to launch @NatashasLegacy on @thismorning with @hollywills and @Schofe,” shewrote on Twitter Tuesday. “We need to make her death a watershed moment and support research into a cure #natashaslaw”
In aseparate tweet, Fergie added: “So proud to have been asked to be patron of @NatashasLegacy. Today we’re delighted to welcome Government announcement of Natasha’s Law to support allergy sufferers but there is much more work to do to promote research”
According to theNational Health Service (NHS), allergies are very common in the UK and are believed to affect more than one in four people at some point. NHS also states that the number of those suffering from allergies continues to increase each year, though the cause behind that remains unclear.
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Some researchers have suggested that living in a cleaner environment has caused the human body to deal with fewer germ interactions which, in turn, decrease the immune systems’ tolerance.
“We’ve changed our diet dramatically over the last 30 years. We’re exposed to hundreds and hundreds of different new chemicals,” he told the outlet. “We are doing things today — interacting with our environment — in an entirely different way than we did 30 odd years ago.”
“All of these things are changing the way our bacteria exists, both in our gut, on our skin and in our lungs and the change of those bacteria has altered the immune response,” Holgate added. “People are becoming more sensitive, they’re becoming allergic.”
source: people.com
