Meet the Team

George Du Toit is a Professor of Paediatric Allergy at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital and King’s College London, which is part of Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

He obtained his medical degree in 1993 from the University of the Witwatersrand and pursued a specialization in children’s medicine. He further specialised in children’s allergy and asthma at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, University of Cape Town. In 2000, he was appointed as a consultant paediatrician and allergist at Imperial College London, St Mary’s Hospital. In 2006, he joined the children’s allergy service at Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

George is actively involved in clinical trials that aim to prevent, treat, and diagnose food allergies. He has participated in several landmark studies, including the LEAP and EAT-On Studies, that aim to prevent food allergy. He has also conducted numerous oral immunotherapy trials, which led to the first licensed product for treating peanut allergy. In addition, he is exploring novel treatment strategies, such as the daily application of a peanut skin patch. He has participated in studies that use new biological agents to moderate food allergy.

George’s clinical and research activities have earned him international recognition. He has received several awards, including the BSACI Dr. William Frankland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Allergy (2018), EAACI Daniel Bovet Award for Allergy Treatment and Prevention (2020), AAAAI Hugh A. Sampson Lectureship in Food Allergy (2022), and Winner of the EAACI Clinical Fellow Award (2024). He was a winner of Top Doctors award (2023).

Adam read Medicine and Neuroscience at Cambridge University before completing his clinical training at University College, London. After specialist training in Paediatric Allergy in 2006, he spent 9 years as clinical lead for Allergy (Adult & Paediatric) at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London – obtaining recognition as an International Centre of Excellence by both the World Allergy Organisation and GALEN (European Asthma & Allergy Network). After 3 years as Clinical Director for Specialist Ambulatory Medicine, he was appointed Deputy Medical Director for Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2018.

Adam is a consultant Paediatric Allergist at Evelina London Children’s Hospital and Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London. He was the founding Director of the KCL Allergy Academy, a postgraduate educational programme, which was a finalist at the BMJ Awards in 2018.

Adam chaired the UK Department of Health National Care Pathway for Food Allergy in Childhood and was a member of the National Institute of Healthcare and Clinical Excellence (NICE) clinical guideline development group for the assessment and diagnosis of food allergy in children. He previously chaired the Paediatric Committee of the British Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (BSACI) and was elected as BSACI President, the first Paediatrician to hold this position, from October 2018 until 2021. He remains a trustee and Immediate Past President of BSACI and in July 2022 was appointed at Chair of the National Allergy Strategy Group.

Adam was awarded ‘Paediatric Allergist of the Year’ from Allergy UK in 2007. His doctoral thesis on peanut allergy received the Raymond Horton Smith prize from Cambridge University in 2012 and he was included in The Times ‘Britain’s 100 Best Children’s Doctors’ (2012). Adam received the William Frankland Award for Outstanding contribution to Allergy from the British Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology in 2015 and a National Clinical Excellence award from the UK Department of Health in 2016 and 2020. He was also listed in the most recent ‘The Tatler Doctors List’ (2013) of the best 250 UK private medical consultants. In 2024, Adam became only the second person to receive the BSACI Fellows Award in recognition of outstanding contribution to clinical allergy.

Adam’s private practice is Allergy London and he posts regularly about allergy related issues on Instagram @dradamfox .

Having completed his medical degree at Lincoln College, Oxford University he then completed senior house office appointments at the John Radcliffe in Oxford. He spent four years training as a paediatrician in New York, and a further four years specialising in Paediatric Allergy & Immunology in Denver, Colorado. After a couple of years in Bristol as a Lecturer in Paediatrics, he became a Consultant in Paediatric Allergy at St Mary’s Hospital in London in 1995. Professor Lack led the Department of Paediatric Allergy and Immunology at St Mary’s Hospital, London for 12 years and became Professor of Paediatric Allergy and Immunology at Imperial College London in 2005. He joined King’s College London in 2006 as Professor of Paediatric Allergy and he is currently Head of the Children’s Allergy Service at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Professor Lack was awarded the William Frankland Award for Outstanding contribution to Allergy by the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 2010. He is a Consultant to the Sean Parker Allergy Centre at Stanford University. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Clinical and Experimental Allergy and is the Secretary to the Food Allergy Section of the World Allergy Organisation.

His research has focused on severe childhood asthma, peanut allergy, and new strategies to prevent and treat food allergies, eczema, asthma, and hay fever in children and adults. His clinical expertise includes allergic asthma, anaphylaxis, and desensitising vaccines to treat hay fever and other allergies. He was the Principal Investigator on the LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut allergy) and EAT (Enquiring About Tolerance) studies, which took place at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Dr Susan Chan joined the team early 2023 as Medical Director. Dr Chan is a Consultant Paediatric Allergist who is Deputy Head of Service at the Evelina Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at King’s College London.

She treats a variety of allergic diseases, including allergies to food, drugs and inhaled environmental allergens, as well as eczema, asthma, hayfever and urticaria. In her NHS service she leads the Chronic Urticaria and the Biologicals (anti-IgE or omalizumab/Xolair) Service, and co-leads the Joint Allergy Dermatology Service and the Joint Allergy Respiratory Service.

Her research interests include food allergy prevention and treatment. She was the Principal Investigator on the ADAPT Children’s Eczema Study and Investigator on the peanut allergy studies being carried out at the Evelina Children’s Hospital.

Chloe joined The Allergy Centre of Excellence in early 2023 and has experience working as a CQC Registered Manager & Consultant. She obtained a Bachelor of Science Hons degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from The University of East London in 2014 and recently graduated from University of Sunderland with an MBA with specialism in healthcare. She has over a decade experience, managing practices of various specialities.

James qualified at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London as a Paediatric Nurse and, after working in general paediatrics/haematology, joined the allergy team at St Mary’s Hospital, London then for many years was the lead allergy nurse at the Royal Free Hospital & Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, both in London.

Most recently has been Children’s and Young Persons Allergy Nurse Consultant at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle and Associate Clinical Lecturer in Newcastle University where he is Lead of the Allergy E-module programme.

He previously completed his MSc in Allergy from the University of Southampton and focused on the use of component resolved diagnostics in peanut allergy. He is a non-medical prescriber and Honorary Nurse Consultant at Great Ormond St Hospital.

His main research interests are in food allergy, allergic rhinitis and MHealth.

He is involved with many food allergy support groups and regularly on various allergy social media groups (Twitter @allergynurseuk)

A registered children’s nurse since 1990. Karen currently works as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and nurse prescriber in Paediatric Dermatology at West Hertfordshire NHS Trust. Karen has helped to establish the Nurse led eczema clinics for children and over the last 12 years, has developed the service within West Hertfordshire Chair of the Paediatric subgroup of the British Dermatological Nursing Group for the UK. Areas of special interest include children’s eczema and teenage acne.

Katherine qualified as a children’s nurse at the Nightingale Institute in 1998. She worked at St Thomas’ hospital initially before moving on to a ward sister post then community children’s nursing. It was in this role that she led on the development of an at home acute asthma service and developed an interest in asthma and allergy.

She joined the Evelina allergy service in 2013 and currently works as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. She has experience in nurse led allergy services, food and drug allergy, pollen and venom immunotherapy. Katherine has recently completed an allergy masters at Southampton University.

Katherine is a member of the BSACI and regularly teaches on allergy focused courses as well as being a co-director on the allergy academy ‘allergy in practice’ course. She has twice been nominated and shortlisted for the Guys and St Thomas’ hospital specialist nurse of the year.

Gemma qualified from Northumbria University as a paediatric nurse in 2005. She has worked in general paediatrics for several years before joining the children’s allergy team at Kings College Hospital in 2010.She joined the children’s allergy team at St Thomas’s Hospital as a clinical nurse specialist in 2014. She conducted nurse led clinics covering food and drug allergy, allergic rhinitis and sublingual/subcutaneous pollen and venom immunotherapy. She completed an allergy MSc from Imperial College in 2018. She was co-course director for the allergy academy’s allergy in practice course in 2023.

Helen trained as a Children’s nurse at Great Ormond Street, qualifying in 1990.

After 5 years working on Hedgehog Ward, Helen moved to the community and trained as health visitor. She spent the next 23 years working across Kent and South East London before moving back to nursing, spending 18 months as a palliative care nurse at Demelza Children’s Hospice in Eltham.

In April 2019 Helen joined the Children’s Food Allergy Research Team at St. Thomas’ Hospital, where she became Lead Nurse on The Bat 2 Study, and has worked extensively on both the oral peanut immunotherapy and peanut skin patch immunotherapy clinical trials, alongside working with the team on the conclusion of the LEAP and EAT studies.

After retiring from the NHS in August 2023, Helen is excited to be able to continue working within food allergy at The FAIC.

Dr David Mass is a GP with a specialist interest in allergy and has been working with Dr Fox treating patients at the allergy clinic since 2010. Dr Mass also works in a busy London NHS practice and is a GP trainer, appraiser and runs his own private practice.

Dr Mass completed the Postgraduate Diploma of Allergy at Southampton University in 2010 and has developed specific interests in Sublingual Immunotherapy, ENT and Dermatology during this. He applies these clinical skills with a wide variety of allergy patients in his day-to-day practice.

He is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Dr Mass has publications related to the ACT campaign – an awareness campaign for cow’s milk protein allergy.

Dr Helen Evans-Howells qualified with honours from Southampton University in 2005 and then trained as a GP, completing this in 2015.

Helen became interested in allergy due to her own experiences of managing a child with milk and nut allergies. She undertook the Masters in Allergy at Southampton University and qualified with distinction in 2018.

After working with the allergy team in Southampton Hospital for 4.5years, Helen now runs a private allergy clinic – Dr Helen Allergy Home Page – www.drhelenallergy.co.uk, which provides virtual and face to face allergy consultations. Dr Helen lectures extensively across the UK and internationally. Helen also helps run the peanut immunotherapy clinic at Southampton Hospital.

Helen was the previous chair for the primary care group of British Society of Allergy and is now a trustee for the Anaphylaxis UK Charity and Chair of their Clinical and Scientific panel.

Helen has appeared on The Jeremy Vine Extra show on Channel 5,BBC Radio, the Today Program and has written for various newspaper articles, raising awareness about allergies and anaphylaxis.

Helen is passionate about improving access to allergy services. She provides support to families from across the world on her free Facebook group and has developed a variety of courses and a virtual allergy clinic to empower families to ‘Live Well with Allergies’.

Odette is an Advanced Nurse Specialist for Children and Young People in Dermatology and Allergy. She joined the dermatology team in 2009 to lead and develop the children’s service and quickly realised her families would be better cared for, If she further developed her allergy knowledge.

She joined the children’s allergy team in 2010 and developed a joint allergy dermatology clinic for children and families who were struggling, and she has completed her masters in allergy.

Odette works with Dr Helen as her online expert in her virtual clinic, as well as providing care for patients in clinic.

Charlotte has been a Respiratory Specialist Nurse for over 18 years. She is passionate about getting the diagnosis right and empowering patients and families to self-manage their own condition.

Having spoken with families whose children are having food immunotherapy, and seeing this delivered in clinics in London, Charlotte is thrilled to be involved in a service which allows families to take back control of their lives. Food immunotherapy is life changing and potentially lifesaving for children with allergies.

Rebecca is a children’s research nurse working at University Hospital Southampton. She has worked on many allergy immunotherapy studies and this has given her a keen interest in children’s allergy. Becky has met lots of children and families living with food allergies and is passionate about personalised care and building relationships to support families and children through their journey of immunotherapy. In her usual day-to-day job with allergy studies, Rebecca carry’s out food challenges, perform skin prick tests and run immunotherapy appointments as well as being a support on the phone to anyone calling for advice.

Rebecca has seen first-hand how life-changing food immunotherapy is for children and their families. She has been there to hear about how anxious families have now eaten out at restaurants together for the first time, taken their first family holiday abroad, and allowed banned food back into their family home. It makes her feel so privileged to be a part of their journey and see how they have transformed as a family.

Gareth has a background in finance but with much encouragement from Dr Helen, he gave up his job several years ago to help develop drhelenallergy. Gareth is responsible for ensuring the clinics run smoothly and is often the first port of call for anyone who rings through for help.

With 20+ years’ experience, Marie has an extensive knowledge of the private medical industry, working in top private hospitals in London. Marie now provides bespoke paediatric private medical practice management to a number of very well respected and busy General/Specialist Consultant Paediatricians, building practices, promoting growth and excellent relationships at all levels and ensuring at all times the patient experience is of the highest standard. Of course this is all made possible with the support of an excellent team.

For the past 5 years Marie has supported one of the highly respected Allergy Professors’ private practice, involved in the new food allergy immunotherapy service. Marie says “As we move into this new era of peanut desensitisation, I am excited and privileged to be involved in providing the necessary practice management to facilitate the programme and the highly anticipated future expansion to cover other foods.”

Complementing a strong work ethic and vast experience, Marie is a mother of two, albeit now adults, and therefore has huge empathy for patients’ parents.

Working previously in both NHS and private medical settings, Helena joined us in Early 2022 and continues to be an integral member of our Admin Team with superb attention to detail and personable nature.

Witnessing the progress of children throughout their medical journey brings Helena immense joy and pride in her role in the company. She believes it to be truly rewarding to contribute to their growth and well-being and will always go that extra mile to help families and her colleagues.

In her spare time, she managed to balance work with an Open University History Degree which she was pleased to complete with a First. Helena loves spending quality time with her family and is an avid film buff and bookworm.

Michaela has been providing admin support to private medical practices since 2018. When the opportunity arose to work with Food Allergy, she quickly embraced and has been a valued member of the Admin Team since day one. Developing and improving processes to assist her colleagues deliver the best possible service is her forte. Michaela enjoys getting to know our desensitisation families and takes pleasure in helping them during the course of their treatment.

Michaela is very much a family person and is now herself a new mum! We look forward to her returning to the office, following completion of her Maternity Leave.

Professor George Du Toit

Founding Director and Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Professor Adam Fox

Founding Director and Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Professor Gideon Lack

Founding Director and Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Dr Susan Chan

Medical Director

Chloe Eburn, BSc MBA

Managing Director

James Gardner

Nursing Director

Karen Pett

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Katherine Knight

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Gemma Schnitzer

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Helen Willis

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Dr David Mass, GP

Specialist interest in Allergy

Dr Helen Howells, GP

Special interest in Allergy (Poole Centre)

Odette Rodda

Clinical Nurse Specialist (Poole Centre)

Charlotte Cunngingham-Smith

Clinical Nurse Specialist (Poole Centre)

Rebecca Mayes

Clinical Nurse Specialist (Poole Centre)

Gareth Evans-Howells

Practice Manager (Poole Centre)

Marie Kenzou

Practice Manager

Helena

Medical Secretary

Michaela

Medical Secretary

Professor George Du Toit

Founding Director and Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Professor Adam Fox

Founding Director and Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Professor Gideon Lack

Founding Director and Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Dr Susan Chan

Medical Director

Chloe Eburn, BSc MBA

Managing Director

James Gardner

Nursing Director

Karen Pett

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Katherine Knight

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Gemma Schnitzer

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Helen Willis

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Dr David Mass, GP

Specialist interest in Allergy

Dr Helen Howells, GP

Special interest in Allergy (Poole Centre)

Odette Rodda

Clinical Nurse Specialist (Poole Centre)

Charlotte Cunngingham-Smith

Clinical Nurse Specialist (Poole Centre)

Rebecca Mayes

Clinical Nurse Specialist (Poole Centre)

Gareth Evans-Howells

Practice Manager (Poole Centre)

Marie Kenzou

Practice Manager

Helena

Medical Secretary

Michaela

Medical Secretary

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Professor George Du Toit

Founding Director and Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy

Founding Director and
Professor of Paediatric Allergy