The Sabrina Shannon Memorial Award is a Meals Allergy Canada sponsored award, made doable by funding from a grant by TD Securities Underwriting Hope Basis.
Two people in post-secondary college who’ve contributed considerably to the Canadian meals allergy neighborhood are chosen for a $1,000 award. The award is devoted to the lifetime of Sabrina Shannon.
This yr, our winners are Vanessa Gilmore and Sienna Campbell-Appiah. We commend them for his or her sturdy dedication to elevating allergy consciousness and educating others.
Meet Vanessa Gilmore
Vanessa is a 17-year-old with allergic reactions to tree nuts and fish. She’ll be getting into her first yr at The College of British Columbia to review science with the aim of pursuing a profession within the medical discipline, as she has an ideal curiosity in serving to folks.
As somebody who is devoted to neighborhood service and volunteering, Vanessa held a bottle drive and leveraged the chance to coach others about meals allergy. She shared the occasion on social media and engaged the yoga studio the place she works. With this occasion, she knowledgeable others in regards to the seriousness of meals allergy by emphasizing the required precautions taken every day to keep away from allergen publicity, and by instructing folks easy methods to use an epinephrine auto-injector, like an EpiPen®, in an emergency.
Moreover, Vanessa held an allergy-friendly bake sale at her highschool to extend meals allergy consciousness. She created posters and made bulletins in regards to the sale, and he or she and a gaggle of fellow college students offered a wide range of treats through the lunch hour. By this occasion, she was in a position to promote consciousness amongst her friends and lecturers. She was happy that the sale was accessible, inclusive, and offered a way of consolation for these with allergic reactions.
With the bottle drive and the bake sale, she additionally fundraised for our group along with creating consciousness of the situation. She selected Meals Allergy Canada as her charity of alternative due to the help the group supplies for her and her household by our web site, webinars, and different applications, and since the necessity to educate on the situation is ongoing as not everybody understands meals allergy.
Vanessa was additionally the president of her highschool’s First Responders crew, and he or she accomplished in depth first support coaching to amass this place. On this position, she gave a presentation about anaphylaxis the place she defined easy methods to establish an allergic response and easy methods to administer an EpiPen. She additionally emphasised methods to attenuate dangers every day and recounted her private experiences with meals allergy. The chance was necessary to her as she was in a position to share a few of her acquired information and expertise together with her friends.
Whereas in school, she labored to assist make it extra allergy conscious in order that college students with meals allergy are protected against reactions and others perceive what they’ll do to help them. For instance, she labored with the administration to make EpiPens extra accessible in emergency conditions, equivalent to having college students’ backup units in unlocked cupboards within the first support room.
Vanessa feels it’s necessary to develop a steadiness between vigilance and preparedness when managing meals allergy. In help of herself and others, she takes the chance to say the situation and generate consciousness every time she will be able to.
We congratulate Vanessa as a well-deserving recipient of this yr’s award and sit up for her continued curiosity in elevating meals allergy consciousness.
Meet Sienna Campbell-Appiah
Sienna is a 17-year-old with allergic reactions to peanut, tree nuts, and fish. She’ll be getting into her first yr at Western College to review Criminology and Political Science. She strongly believes in elevating consciousness and educating others about meals allergy on an area stage, and has carried out so in a number of methods.
She has raised consciousness in her neighborhood by instructing others in regards to the significance of realizing easy methods to use an epinephrine auto-injector. Sienna recalled experiencing an anaphylactic response in seventh grade, and having a employees member admit that they didn’t know easy methods to use the auto-injector. Since that point, she has made it some extent to make sure that the folks round her know the place to search out her gadget and easy methods to use it.
Sienna has additionally promoted consciousness by social media by infographics and public service bulletins (PSAs) she created on totally different allergy-based matters, together with easy methods to establish anaphylaxis in others and what the widespread allergens are. Her aim is to achieve her friends in a manner that’s comprehensible and relatable.
She took the chance to create consciousness on meals allergy and anaphylaxis in her highschool philosophy class, the place she needed to create her personal college primarily based on the speculation of functionalism (the concept that all the things in society has a operate). In doing so, she needed to clarify a number of the applications she would implement in her college, and clarify the operate it will have inside our society. As a part of this, she applied a compulsory allergy consciousness course. She defined how she would run the course, which included EpiPen® coaching, and tales of these impacted by meals allergy, equivalent to Sabrina Shannon. By this undertaking, she felt she was in a position to give her classmates a deeper understanding of dwelling with meals allergy and being liable to anaphylaxis.
In Sienna’s view, educating the folks in your neighborhood about meals allergy, and elevating consciousness in regards to the situation could make an enormous distinction. She plans to proceed her efforts, and encourages others to do the identical!
We congratulate Sienna on her efforts to lift consciousness and educate others, and we’re proud to call her as a recipient of this yr’s award.
Our congratulations to those two inspiring and achieved younger folks! To study extra in regards to the Sabrina Shannon Memorial Award, go to our neighborhood awards web page.
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