150,000 back calls for nuts to be banned on airlines after ITV producer Amy May Shead left severely disabled

Amy May Shead on ITV's This Morning earlier this week
Rex Features
Eleanor Rose25 August 2017

A petition to ban nuts on airlines has gathered more than 150,000 signatures after a call to action by the family of an ITV producer who suffered catastrophic brain damage from an allergic reaction.

Amy May Shead, 29, was left unable to speak, see or walk properly after she went into anaphylactic shock while eating a meal containing nuts on holiday in Budapest.

Although the tragic incident did not take place on a plane, the Amy May Trust - run by her aunt and cousin to raise funds for her care - launched the petition this week to increase public awareness of the dangers faced by allergy sufferers in their daily lives.

"While we understand the small comforts of travelling, such as a snack with your first holiday drink onboard, we also realise the seriousness of many allergies," said the organisation on Change.org in a petition they launched after speaking out over the incident this week.

"Unlike other forms of both private and public transport ... an airline is an airtight tube within which the ventilation system can cause serious consequences to passengers who may be affected by contaminated air.

"Equally, if a reaction takes place onboard, the patient will require urgent and time-sensitive medical care, often within moments of the reaction taking place.

"Even with personal medication such as an EpiPen (syringes of adrenaline carried by allergy sufferers), reaching a hospital within the required time is an unfeasible solution when thousands of feet in the air," it said.

Viewers were left in tears earlier this week when her family told of her horrific ordeal on ITV's This Morning.

They told how, allergic to nuts since birth, Ms Shead - an ITV web producer who worked on Good Morning Britain - sensibly carried an EpiPen and other allergy medications.

She jetted off to Hungary in 2014 for a long weekend with friends, and on the third day ordered a meal in a restaurant.

Although she showed waiters an allergy information card in local language, after just one bite anaphylaxis struck and Ms Shead suffered cardiac arrest.

Paramedics fought to save her life as her friends looked on, but her brain was starved of oxygen for six minutes.

She was left with serious brain injury causing partial paralysis and problems with sight and speech.

Her personal insurance did not cover pre-existing conditions such as the allergy, so Ms Shead's family could not claim compensation.

According to Allergy UK, 44 per cent of British adults suffer from at least one allergy and the number of sufferers is on the rise.

About one in 100 people are thought to be allergic to nuts, with reactions ranging from mild to severe.

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