Moving to the Valleys helped save Loulou’s life
A woman who became allergic to diesel, food and perfume has described how she was told to ‘move or die’ – and upped sticks to the South Wales Valleys – in order to save her life. Loulou Palmer had to wear a mask both indoors and outdoors for nearly six ye
ORIGINALLY living in Bristol, therapist Loulou Palmer had been running a number of practices when she underwent a Cat scan for suspected appendicitis.
While she had suffered with allergies since the age of two, the reaction her body had as the dye hit her veins was nothing she could have ever expected.
Loulou said: “I hadn’t had a reaction for 13 years by that point.
“I came out of the scan in anaphylactic shock and was like that for 48 hours, it was just raging. It was like Spider-Man being bit by the spider, I came out completely different to when I went in.
“I just came home and I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t feeling any better. My body was just like a puffer fish.
“I’d go from normal me to three dress sizes bigger looking like I’d been on steroids my whole life. My throat would close over, my tongue wouldn’t fit in my head. My eyes were bulging out my skull. I had sausage fingers, I couldn’t get my shoes on.
“I was super fit and then my lung capacity disappeared. I couldn’t get more than 15 feet to the bottom of the drive and back again.”
As Loulou’s health deteriorated, more and more substances began to trigger an allergic reaction.
While it was little understood at the time, she now knows it was caused by a reaction to a phenolic compound found in diesel but in also things like perfumes, cleaning products, glue and food – including coffee and chocolate.
She said: “For some reason my system picked up on whatever that was in contrast dye and just went ‘f*** off you’re not having that’. It changed my life.
“One morning after a particularly tricky night I was just trying to sit out in the garden and collect myself. I was just wheezing and wheezing and I couldn’t understand and then I looked up and there was 20, 30 chem trails from airplanes above Bristol.
“I had not long found about the diesel – I had been in a diesel ambulance and nearly died. We got halfway to Southmead and they had to pull over because they were losing me. They had the doors open, the engine running on the main road to the hospital.”
When things reached their worst Loulou was left with no other choice but to close her business and pack up her life in Bristol after being told by her immunologists to “move or die”.
Describing the moment she discovered her new life in Cwmtillery, Loulou explained the house-hunting process had been exhausting, with cleaning products in the homes triggering allergic reactions.
She added: “I noticed the air we moment we drove around this valley looking at other houses....
“And then we drove up here and I literally looked at the face of my dream home.”
Since moving to Blaenau Gwent, things have been far from easy for Loulou and her partner. At one point, after discovering they needed a new kitchen, she spent three weeks living in her bedroom to avoid any reactions from the materials and the dust.
On another occasion, answering the door to a plumber left her gasping for breath, all because he had showered earlier that morning.
More than anything, however, being away from the pollution of busy city life gave Loulou the change to start afresh – and start a mental and physical journey to the position she is in now. Thanks to the help of a life-saving nutritionist, as well as focusing on her mental health and wellbeing, she is now one-and-a-half years free from medication.
Loulou said: “It was a gradual process. Moving here was was a key point to it, it was definitely a mind, body, soul approach.
“So I got out of the environment that was making it so hard.
“Then I started working with an amazing nutritionist . . . and she literally rebuilt me from the inside out.
“I was a therapist and had studied the brain and all the systems of the body. I understood that step one was to get clean air and give my lungs space to actually recuperate and for all the heavy metals to come out my system and then there would have to be dealing with the brain and just rewiring it.”
For Loulou meditation has been a key part of her recovery process. Now, if she begins to feel an allergic reaction she will go into a meditative state to settle her body – something that also made a vital difference when her body was fighting against her “tooth and nail” when her medication started to come to an end.
After a week-long retreat with lecturer Dr Joe Dispenza she handed in her mask as a symbol of her recovery, and has been without it for two years thanks to what Loulou describes as her “new body”.
But while Loulou is now healthy and medication free, she has been unable to enjoy her newfound freedom this year while the rest of the world remains in lockdown.
Despite restrictions, there is one thing Loulou has been able to do to mark how far she has come.
After growing her hair for months upon months, last week she underwent a special transformation at Abertillery salon Kutz N Kurlz to give herself a new look.
Not only has the hair from her head shave been donated to wig charity the Little Princess Trust, the image of her sat for hours in a “pool” of chemical hair dye is one she never thought would happen again.
Loulou said: “The very first time I sat in that chair I had a mask on. All bar the foils I was almost repeating that vision to myself. To then hold my new centre, the healthy, happy me, was a triumph.”
You can follow Loulou’s journey on her blog The Humble Bumblebee or email her at inspire@humble-bumblebee.com
Georgia before getting the chop and right, after. Centre: The hair Georgia has donated
A KIND-HEARTED eight-year-old has donated 14in of her hair to a charity which specialises in making wigs for children with cancer.
After Georgia Carr saw a post on social media about a girl who had lost her hair because of cancer, she asked her mum Elaine if she could
Georgia Carr aged eight from Llanrumney, Cardiff has cut 12 inches off her hair and Donated it to let that youngster have her hair.
The pair looked into the matter and came across The Little Princess Trust, which makes wigs for children and young people.
Local hairdresser Tanisha Rule generously provided the haircut for free.
Mum Elaine said: “Georgia has always been such a caring and kindhearted girl and thinks of others so much.
“She actually cares for me a lot too as I suffer from osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia she helps me dress and does so many household chores. She really is such an angel I don’t know what I would do without her.”
So far Georgia, a pupil at Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Eirwg, Rumney, Cardiff, has raised £870. To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/elaine-carr7