The parents of a girl who died on a plane after eating a sandwich from Pret a Manger are in Jersey to raise awareness about food allergies in the Channel Islands.

Natasha was just 15 years old when she suffered an allergic reaction to sesame whilst on a plane to France.

Her father, Nadim Ednan-Laperouse says they bought a sandwich with an ingredients label with no concerns.

"In the aeroplane, she went into a full-blown allergic reaction and anaphylaxis closes down the airways very rapidly, and you can't breathe and you effectively suffocate to death.

"She died on the plane in front of me, even though I was doing CPR along with a junior doctor on the flight.

"We didn't stand a chance of saving her life.

"It's horrific... absolutely horrific."

A woman eating in a cafe

After the fatal incident in 2016, Natasha's case was widely reported and a law was created in her memory to improve UK food safety standards for those suffering from allergies.

Her parents, Tanya and Nadim, also established the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, which aims to eradicate and prevent food allergies.

"Unfortunately, we are contacted all the time by parents whose children or teenagers die, and most of this happens in hospitality or the food industry when things go wrong because the food businesses either are dismissive or they have such poor practices that they allow themselves to be wide open to some critical error happening and somebody actually dying."

NARF is teaming up with the Jersey Food Allergy Group, which is holding its first Channel Islands conference on 18 November 2024.

The main concern for the meeting is highlighting the need for regulation in the hospitality and food industries to mitigate circumstances where people suffer allergic reactions due to a lack of information or care.

READ: Father of child with severe food allergies wants more protection

Nadim Ednan-Laperouse says Natasha's Law is about the transparency of food ingredients which is important for those suffering from allergies.  He wants to see the same protections in the islands:

"When [people] travel to Jersey or Guernsey, they speak English, it looks English, [but it isn't England].

"It's only right the two islands afford the same level of public protection because if they don't, there's a great risk that something will go wrong, as happened with my own child, my own daughter - a fatality."