If ‘weeks’ really achieve their intention of raising awareness, by the end of May the world awareness of allergy will be at an all-time high. A quick trawl of ‘weeks’ on Google’s first four ‘allergy week’ pages brought up no less than six – and that only covered the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
The slightly baffling thing was that, although all in April or May, they were all on different dates. I would like to think that this was a deliberate policy to keep the awareness up for a couple of months – but I doubt it. And even if it were, might it not be better to go for one genuine ‘world’ allergy week when every one could co-ordinate activity and publicity?
If you want to check them out:
4-10th April – World Allergy Week
(6th April – Presentation of the FreeFrom Food Awards 2011 for the best allergen-free food…)
11-15th April – UK Allergy Week
(6-8th May – Allergy & Gluten-free Show – London)
8-14th May – US FAAN Food Allergy Awareness Week
9-15th May – Allergy and Chemical Sensitivity Week – Australia.
15-21st May – Allergy Awareness Week – Allergy New Zealand
16-21st May – Anaphylaxis Australia – Food Allergy /awareness Week