A ten year old boy’s life has been transformed after he was successfully treated for a deadly peanut allergy in a clinical trial.

       George Sawyer from Whitchurch, Hampshire, is one of 139 youngsters aged between 3 and 23 taking part in the experiment which aims to slowly ‘desensitise’ those with severe milk and peanut allergies by giving tiny but increasing doses of off the shelf foods.

       Early results of the 2.5 million pound study reveal George is among a handful of children showing dramatic signs of improvement.

       George was diagnosed with a peanut allergy a day after his sixth birthday. His mother found him ‘curled up in the hallway’ with swollen lips and hives. He told her he wanted to ‘go to sleep.’ He was rushed to hospital where tests showed he was experiencing a severe allergic reaction to a peanut he had eaten which was also causing his airways to swell and stopping him from breathing properly. He could have died if he had not received urgent medical treatment.

       George enrolled on the trial at Southampton hospital in September last year where he has slowly been exposed to increasing but tiny doses of peanuts under medical supervision. His tolerance has increased and now he can eat the equivalent of six peanuts without a reaction.

       His mother, Claire, a telecom salesperson said: “I had heard of peanut allergies but I didn’t realise the life threatening severity of it until I had a child with one.

       “It affected so much of our lives. We were worried about going out to eat, we avoided planes, and whenever we did go out we would choose the restaurant carefully and wipe down the table in case there were peanut traces on the surface. It changes your life - you are always worried.”

       Claire, also mother to 7-year-old Isla said: “The trial has been transformational. George still has an allergy but if he accidentally swallowed some peanut he wouldn’t even know it. It’s amazing.”

       Thomas Farmer, 11, was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when he was one. He can now eat six peanuts a day after joining the trial in Southampton.

       Grace Fisher, 5, has a milk allergy but is now able to drink 125 ml of milk a day since joining the trial in Newcastle, Grace Fisher, five, who has a milk allergy, is now drinking 120ml milk a day.

       Following the news, the trial run from hospitals in Southampton, London, Leicester, Newcastle and Sheffield - is now set to be extended to four other sites in Scotland, Leeds and the south west. Researchers are also now including toddlers aged 2-3.

       Scientists hope if successful the trial could provide evidence for everyday foods treatment to be made available on the NHS.

       Professor Hasan Arshad, a Southampton based expert in allergies and asthma, a lead researcher in the study said: “Using everyday foods to treat allergies is inexpensive and cost effective. My hope is that in the not too distant future, life threatening allergic reactions will become a thing of the past.”

       The research is funded by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation set up by the parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse from Fulham, west London, who died in 2016 after suffering a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked into a Pret baguette.

       Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse set up the charity hoping to cure allergies with research. They have also campaigned for a change in food laws.

       The number of people suffering food allergies has doubled over the past two decades and now affect up to 3 percent of the UK population. Some experts think lack of exposure to microbes due to over processed diets and ‘over cleanliness’ may be partly to blame.