The Times, 3rd Oct 2021 - Natasha’s law: ‘I had ten seconds to talk to my sister before she died’

On the day my sister died [after eating a Pret baguette containing sesame seeds, to which she was allergic], I was supposed to be going to a trampoline park with my friends. Tash was going to the south of France for four days with her best friend and my dad as a treat at the start of the summer holidays. I was 13 and Tash was 15.

In the morning, about three hours after dropping them off at Heathrow airport, my mum got a phone call from my dad saying that Tash had become really unwell on the plane to Nice and was unconscious. I remember my mum panicking, and trying to buy a plane ticket to get to France as quickly as possible.

A family friend drove me to my grandma’s house. I was trying to take care of my grandma, who was crying, and promising her that it was going to be OK, that Tash was going to get through it. I believed with all my heart she was going to survive.

Later that day I got a phone call from my dad saying that Tash was going to die in a few minutes and I had to say goodbye. My mum was still at Stansted airport because her flight had been delayed so she had to say goodbye over the phone too.

Tash was unconscious but I thanked her for being such a great sister to me and told her I loved her very much. I only spoke to her for 10 to 15 seconds and then the phone call ended. Everything changed from there.

I remember this feeling of deep shock, and my lungs felt like they had collapsed. I started crying uncontrollably. Afterwards I didn’t eat for three days because I felt sick all the time.

I still think about Tash a lot. I miss that sibling bond — I don’t have that any more. My family was always a family of four and now it’s just the three of us. That’s hard to process.

Tash had a funny, contagious laugh. If she started laughing, everyone else in the room would start laughing too. We laughed a lot together. She was feisty, she had a lot of character and she cared about people.

She had a real sense of justice and she wanted to help people. She wanted to be a human rights lawyer and that’s my dream now to be one. Tash was such an inspiration to me.

We had a very, very strong bond, and the older we got the closer we became.

I remember there was a teenage festival that Tash wanted to take me to in the summer of 2016. I wasn’t sure about going but she said, “It’s OK, I’m going to take care of you. You’re my little brother and I’m going to make sure you have the best time possible.” She was always protective. She died two weeks before the festival.

Christmas without her is really difficult, as well as all her birthdays. I just miss her so much. She was 15 when she died. When I turned 16 it felt so weird that I was now older than Tash; I found being 16 really difficult. I am 18 now, and studying for my A-levels. She never reached 18 and that still hurts.

After her death it wouldn’t have been right if we didn’t help other people like Tash who have food allergies. She had severe allergies to milk, eggs and sesame seeds from a young age so she was always very careful with what she ate and was always checking labels. There were a lot of birthday parties she couldn’t attend when she was little because of the party food.

I’m very glad Natasha’s law [which forces all pre-packed food made on-site to list every ingredient] is finally coming into place but it’s a bittersweet moment. Part of me is glad because this law will help to make people with food allergies safer, but at the same time if it had been in place in 2016 then Tash would still be alive.