A HELENSBURGH mum has spoken of the challenges faced by her daughter as she lives with coeliac disease.

Gail and Steve Losh’s daughter, Rhia, was diagnosed with coeliac disease when she was just eight years old.

Gail spoke to the Advertiser this week as part of efforts to improve the public’s knowledge of the disease during Coeliac Awareness Week, which runs from May 9-15.

The condition causes a person’s immune system to attack their own tissues when they eat gluten, damaging their gut, or small intestine, so they are unable to take in nutrients.

Coeliac disease can cause a range of symptoms, including diarrhoea, abdominal pain and bloating.

According to charity Coeliac UK, the disease has a prevalence of one in 100, meaning that hundreds of thousands of people across the country currently suffer from it.

Helensburgh Advertiser: Gail Losh and daughter Rhia, now 13Gail Losh and daughter Rhia, now 13

The charity says under-diagnosis is a big problem; research suggests around 500,000 people with the disease in the UK have not yet been diagnosed.

Gail ran the London Marathon in 2018 to raise money for Coeliac UK, and was joined by Rhia for the last 600 metres of the course.

Gail explained: “Rhia was very sick and bloated all the time, and we just couldn’t work out what was wrong with her.

“She was really run down and she had no energy.

“She had bloods done and a biopsy, and after diagnosis and after she started a gluten free diet her weight and symptoms improved.

“As a child, it took her a long time to get her head around it.

READ MOREMental Health Awareness Week: Jean's Bothy services return

“She’s very sensitive and she has to have her own toaster, her own cutlery, and we don’t use any wooden cooking utensils just to be on the safe side.”

Contrary to widespread belief, coeliac disease is not a food allergy or an intolerance, but an autoimmune disease.

In coeliac disease, eating gluten causes the lining of the small intestine to become damaged.

Gail added: “Before Rhia was diagnosed, I had heard of coeliac disease but I didn’t know the difference between a gluten allergy and coeliac disease.

“A lot of people will say ‘just try a little bit!’ because they don’t understand the damage it can cause.

“I’m so glad Rhia has taken it all on board, because a lot of people are still really naïve and don’t understand what contains gluten and what doesn’t.

“She knows instantly if she has been ‘glutened’, and she will feel rubbish for a good couple of days after.

“When she was in primary seven they had to present a topic, and she chose coeliac disease and educated the other pupils and teachers, which is great.”

To find out more information about coeliac disease, see coeliac.org.uk.

READ MORETime to speak out on prescription drug dependence, says Helensburgh campaigner