Emily L BPS

 In one of my most recent posts, I talked about going to camp at Lady Northcote Recreation Camp and how I was going to have to be served gluten free food every time I ate something. They were brilliant at this camp and everything I ate was 100% gluten free! The food was delicious and I loved it. I couldn’t believe that when we had to do survival challenge, we needed to make damper. As some of you may know, damper is made from water which I can eat and flour which I can’t eat. I had just started thinking who I should give my damper to when the instructor came up to me and said that she had some gluten free flour for me that I could use to make the damper!

 I was so happy that I could actually eat the damper that there was a smile on my face for the whole time I was making the it (except when I was coughing when the smoke got in my eyes)! I was really happy how they had put so much effort into making my diet gluten free as well as making it taste nice! The went shopping just for me and they they bought me nice things like lamingtons, donuts, bread, rolls and pasta. All of the food tasted sensational and I am really happy that I had a really enjoyable time at Lady Northcote Camp!   

Coeliac Disease impacts on people’s lives by alot of different things. Here are some:

• What food coeliacs can eat
• The symptoms they can get
• How some people may think that they shouldn’t be with someone who has coeliac disease because they might catch it (even though you can’t catch coeliac disease)
• How some people may not want you to come over as their mum may think that she wouldn’t be able to handle the diet
•  Or over seas, you have to have the labeling on food that coeliacs are about to eat translated to make sure they are gluten free

          plus many more.

 This week, from Wednesday to Friday, the senior unit are going on camp to Lady Northcote where we will be doing lots of fun activities such as mountain biking, canoeing the flying fox, the giant swing and much more. Because I am a coeliac, like every other time I have been to camp, I need special foods that are completely gluten free and have no cross - contamination. I am really excited about camp and I am sure that the food will be really nice .

                           This is my mind map the 2nd time I did it:

                                 

I’ve got a voki!!! A voki is basically a character that you can dress and make it say something. I’m really excited about mine and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do! Please make a comment either on this post or on my voki!

 I would do anything for my dream job which I have been wanting to do for a long time. It is a career that I have set my mind on for about 4 years now and I would like to do it when I am older. It is to be a dietitian specialising in coeliac disease. By doing this, I would be able to help others with following the diet and being able to help people who know or think that they might have coeliac disease with any issues that they had. Because of all of the issues that my mum (Sally Learey) had with trying to figure what the matter was with my brother and I, I think that I would be able to solve peoples’ problems that they had quite easily (due to the fact that I would have heaps of background knowledge by then).

 I would also really like to write a book like my mum did (her book was a children’s picture book titled Food For Me Is Gluten Free) and help raise the awareness of coeliac disease even more. I would try to get it in many newspapers and magazines. The message I would like to get across to everyone is to be aware of coeliac disease and to not be afraid of someone who has coeliac disease ’cause all the have to do, is eat gluten free food - they’re hardly different to many people who have allergies or who know someone who has an allergy.

 So now you know the two goals that I would like to achieve. By doing so, I just want to help raise awareness of coeliac disease and tell everyone that coeliacs are basically the same as everyone else  !  

Here are some sites that have information about coeliac disease on them:

• http://www.coeliacsociety.com.au  
• http://www.vic.coeliac.org.au
• http://www.glutenfreeloot.com
• http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?Article=315
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeliac_disease
• http://www.virtualcancercentre.com/diseases.asp?did=486
• http://www.medicinenet.com/celiac_disease/article.htm

      I hope that you find these sites very useful. 

   Something that’s interesting about every object, thing or word is the meaning. The meaning for coeliac is “suffering in the bowels.” “Koiliakos” was the original word for “coeliac” in Greek.  Moving from Greek to Latin, the ’k’s’ became ’c’s’ and the ‘oi’ became ‘oe’. Taking out the usual Greek ending ‘os’ gave us the word coeliac.

 It is fascinating that knowledge of coeliac disease dates back as far as 10,000 years ago. Yet today, many people are still cluless on what coeliac disease really is.

 An interesting fact about coeliac disease is that on average 1 in 100 people are coeliacs. So, if you went to a school that had 400 people there (including teachers), 4 people would be coeliacs on average.

Info found at : http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/~cs0rel/hist.htm.  

 On Tuesday, the 27th of February, it was my Mum’s book launch. She launched her children’s picture book that she wrote. It is called ‘Food For Me Is Gluten Free.’  It was a very successful night and she managed to sell lots of books. A dietitian that my mum knows was her Keynote Speaker and this dietitian basically talked about what coeliac disease is, what the symptoms are, and other information about coeliac disease. My mum talked about our journey to coeliac disease (in my family) and how she came to writing Food For Me Is Gluten Free. It was heaps of fun and a good night to remember.        Below are some pictures from the night.

                  

Coeliac Awareness week was on the 13th of March to the 20th of March 2007. In this week, everyone who wanted to can help, could raise the awareness of coeliac disease. They could have done this by:

• hosting a gluten free morning tea
• talking about coeliac disease in the classroom or at work
• simply finding out what coeliac disease is and telling others about it

           or just being aware of coeliac disease.

On one day of Coeliac Awareness Week, my mum came to school and brought along the book she wrote so that my sister, my brother and I could all share it with our class mates.

Here is a picture of me and my mum reading ‘Food For Me Is Gluten Free’ (the book that my mum wrote).

     
               

Here is a picture of my brother reading Food For Me Is Gluten Free to his class in Coeliac Awareness Week.