Crossed Grain

SUPPORTER NEWS | 3 Thank you to Team Coeliac UK! Volunteer Shout Outs Throughout the year, Team Coeliac UK take on a range of great events to raise vital funds. This year, we had a fantastic fundraiser from Co-op who didn’t stop at one challenge – he did two! Christian ran 10K in the Great Manchester Run, then a week later took part in the Edinburgh Marathon. We caught up with him to find out more about his experience fundraising for Coeliac UK. What made you want to get involved in fundraising and raising awareness for Coeliac UK? After diagnosis I quickly realised there was a huge knowledge gap - from the public, and within places to eat where coeliac disease isn’t taken as seriously as other food issues. Getting into fundraising I hoped would help spearhead new research into treatments and help to educate people on how serious coeliac disease is. Coeliac UK has a very good app for teaching about food I can/can’t eat and helps me plan meals massively. I want to ensure nobody has symptoms they don’t understand and remain undiagnosed, which causes untold damage to your body. As part of the free from committee for The Co-op I am able to advise on good or bad ideas for gluten free lines and promotions, while I learn more about my condition. How did you find your challenges? I found the marathon enjoyable, it was tough committing to training, changing my eating plan to support the training and being mentally in a strong place for it. What would you say to others considering taking part in Challenges for Coeliac UK? I would say go for it, nothing is unattainable (as clichéd as that sounds). Push yourself to try something you didn’t think you could achieve. The idea of running a marathon wouldn’t have crossed my mind 12 months ago, but right now, I’m a proud medal owner, proud to represent Coeliac UK and my friends and family are incredibly proud of me too. You can make a huge difference to the lives of people who need to live gluten free. And it’s not too late to get involved! Join one of our cheer squads and help give our participants an extra motivation boost on the day. Find out more www.coeliac.org.uk/ cheer-squads Back in July we attended our first Allergy & Free From Show in London for over three years. It was a fantastic weekend where we were able to connect with our community, existing and new, have the support of our volunteers, share our expertise and host activities with our celebrity supporters and ambassador Becky Excell. It was a real team effort. And we were lucky enough to have one of our Young Champions lend us a hand along with her Mum @kids.coeliac.dietitian . Keep an eye out on the Coeliac UK blog for more about Amelie’s first Allergy & Free From Show! www.coeliac.org.uk/blog and find out more about our Young Champions scheme www.coeliac.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with- us/become-a-young-champion/ ‘It was the best day of my life!’ Amelie, Coeliac UK Young Champion, aged 9 A big thank you to our Moving On Pack volunteer team who have been using their knowledge and experiences to review our existing resources. They’ve provided some valuable feedback that will not only bring the current booklet up to date but also how we can further develop the supporting resources to be even more valuable. Look out for the updates on our website in the coming months. In the meantime, you can request your FREE copy of the pack at www.coeliac.org.uk/movingon Amelie with celebrity GF cookbook author Megan McKenna