The decision to relocate overseas for medical treatment has transformed the lives of one Mudgee family.
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Holly and Mark Jessop are parents to three children, Jack, Pearl and Riley all of whom suffered from severe allergies since birth to a variety of everyday foods which include; eggs, dairy, nuts, peanuts, legumes and seeds.
Unable to live a normal life and with no treatment options available in Australia, the family made the radical choice to relocate to the United States for special treatment. In June 2019, Holly Jessop packed up and moved to Utah in the United States with the three children- with dad staying home in Australia - hoping to treat their sometimes life-threatening allergies.
All three children completed oral immunotherapy treatment (OIT), which involves giving an allergic individual a gradually increasing amount of the allergen - for example, cashew nuts - with the goal of increasing the threshold that triggers a reaction in that individual.
For 11 months the family adapted to their new life and completed regular treatments at the Utah-based medical facility. Things were further complicated when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the aussie family to isolate in their apartment except to leave for treatment.
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"it was hard. But nothing was as hard as how we were living before," Ms Jessop said.
"There were other Aussie families over there at the time, who are obviously lifelong friends and are like family now. We all lived in the same block of apartments, unfortunately, due to COVID we couldn't actually see each other.
"it was really ironic because here we were living in these apartments where we could practically was so close you could yell out to them, but we couldn't actually see each other."
Each of the children now manages their allergy through a 'maintenance dose' of small amounts of their trigger foods. For example, Jack eats a handful of cashews every morning. By all accounts, the children have been largely 'cured' of their allergies, with little remaining in the way of risk.
Living back in Australia, Holly said the treatment has transformed their lives.
"Jack, he did cashew and egg. So he has to have five days a week, five cashews every morning and 25 mils of egg white that comes in a carton - we just mix it in milk. That's just to keep his body recognising that he's not allergic to it anymore," Ms Jessop said.
"Riley's oral immunotherapy was probably the most transformative - dairy was just the hardest. He did dairy, egg, peanut and soy and he's still got other food allergies left. But we've taken those off the [table]. As you can imagine dairy is just in everything, it's so unavoidable. Before he went to America just going down a slippery dip was risky.
"Now... he'd eat ice cream for breakfast if we let him, he has as much dairy as he wants."
Despite successfully treating scores of families overseas the treatment is still in its trial phase in Australia. The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology (ASCI) and allergy states that 'Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) is an emerging experimental treatment, and its benefits and harms are still being studied in clinical trials in Australia and globally.'
Holly wanted to share a special thank you with the community, without whose support that family would not have been able to make the trip.
"We would like to thank our amazing Mudgee community for all your support on this journey, our family and friends, The Lions Club Mudgee, Dave Miller and the Cooyal Hotel, without all the amazing support, donations, raffles etc we would have never been able to do OIT in Utah, we are forever grateful," she said.
