Agony for hay fever sufferers as

BRITAIN is in the grip of hay fever hell thanks to the heatwave.

Victims include people who have never suffered with an allergy to pollen before.

The Met Office says the pollen count has been stuck at very high for at least a week, with no relief in sight.

And one forecast says it could last until the middle of next month.

Inquiries about hay fever – or allergic rhinitis – to the NHS website are up by 43 per cent this June compared with the same period last year.

Allergy UK said it has seen a big spike in email inquiries or calls to its helpline because the hot spell has coincided with the peak of the grass pollen season.

Grass pollen affects about 80 per cent of the UK’s 12 million hay fever sufferers.

Allergy UK Nurse Adviser Holly Shaw said: “This year we are getting more reports of people suffering from hay fever for the first time in years, or even for the first time ever.

“While it is more common for hay fever to develop in childhood, it is not uncommon for people to develop it as adults.”

The Met Office, which works with the University of Worcester’s National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit to predict pollen counts, said only northern Scotland was escaping the highest levels.

The current forecast says: “The grass pollen risk will be very high during warm, dry weather. Spore and weed levels will be elevated too.” A Met Office spokesman said: “We are at the peak of the grass season and pollen levels are particularly high because we have not had any rain. Rain washes pollen out of the air column.

“But when you have high pressure, as we do at the moment, the pollen builds up in the lower layers of the atmosphere so there’s a cumulative effect.

“We have had warm, dry weather for a good number of weeks. If we had one or two big fronts of rain