Rebecca Marsh

“I’ve been able to go back to a normal life which is great”

16-year-old student, Rebecca Marsh, had been struggling with regular outbreaks of hives and urticaria since September 2021. Rebecca experienced skin flare-ups several times a week which impacted her life considerably.

She explained how these symptoms had affected her during this time, “The rash was very unsightly and very itchy. This resulted in me ether not going into school or having to come home from school. It was extremely hard to cope with as I was taking my GCSEs between May and June 2023.”

Rebecca then added, “If the symptoms occurred when I was due to have dancing lessons, then I could not attend and I didn’t go out generally when I had a rash attack as I felt very self-conscious.”

After trying various prescriptions from her GP along with different clothing with no results, Rebecca learned about YorkTest through her father’s employer who gave him the option to purchase a food intolerance test.

After taking a Junior Food Intolerance Test initially at the age of 15, Rebecca found she had IgG reactivity to cow’s milk, yeast, eggs and cashew nuts. After eliminating her trigger ingredients, Rebecca’s skin issues began to take a turn for the better.  “I felt more active, had more energy and no longer had that bloated feeling. I’ve just got back to normal – school and being able to attend my dance classes.”

Rebecca further commented, “After around a week or two of making the changes, I started to feel noticeably better and the rashes had stopped which was amazing.”

Talking about her experience with trying to eliminate multiple foods from her diet, Rebecca said, “I lot a little bit of weight due to the type of foods I was having to avoid. Treats like cakes had to stop. So it was very tough at first due to what I had to avoid. It got easier though as we found alternatives and I got used to these as well as having to check ingredient lists all the time!”

After a period of dietary adjustments, Rebecca decided to follow up with a Premium Food Intolerance Test almost a year later to see if she still had reactivity to her trigger ingredients. The process involves sending a finger-prick blood sample to the company’s laboratories and receiving her results within 7 days. Following on from the test, we asked Rebecca how she found the customer service experience to which she replied: “Brilliant. They were there when we needed to book appointments and ask questions.”

Similarly, on her appointment with one of our nutritional experts, Rebecca added: “Extremely helpful. Explained everything clearly, especially around re-testing after at least 6 weeks to see if my system had reset. We left it 11 weeks and it had worked.”

YorkTest analyses your IgG reactions to 200 food and drinks – from common ingredients like Cow’s Milk, Gluten and Egg, to health superfoods like kale and quinoa.

When asked to sum up her whole experience with YorkTest, Rebecca concluded: “I’ve been able to go back to a normal life which is great. I feel fit and have no concerns over my diet causing me issues any more.”