Long Beach
George Game wants to eat scrambled eggs.
And pancakes.
And Indian curry with cashews.
But most of all, 12-year-old George want to eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The classic glazed ones.
For the first 12 years of his life, George could not eat any of the above because of life-threatening food allergies. Now, after 12 trans-Atlantic trips from the United Kingdom to Long Beach, the youngster has reached remission, meaning he can eat whatever he wants. And to prove it, on Monday, July 19, George ate 76 peanuts as a final exam of sorts — without any reaction — at the nonprofit Southern California Food Allergy Institute in Long Beach.
“At the start, I was completely worried,” he said, “but at the end, I am so excited at what I have accomplished and what change I made in my life.”
George’s mom, Anne-Louise Game, said she is still processing that her oldest son can now eat whatever he wants.
“Oh, my goodness, I can’t describe the difference this does for our family,” she said. “It’s been pretty grim. There were so many things he couldn’t eat that he now can.”
George began showing allergic reactions when he was just a baby. His mother said he was always covered in welts and rashes. Doctors in England told her he was allergic to tree nuts, sesame and eggs. Even though they avoided those foods, he still didn’t feel well.
“In the UK we saw a respected doctor who recommended things and then just told us good luck,” she said. “It was difficult.”
The mother of two boys started doing food allergy research online and came across a woman in San Francisco who told her about the Tolerance Induction Program (TIP) at the Southern California Food Allergy Institute.
“Once I get a bit in my teeth, I am determined to find an answer,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what they were promising; about what he could eat. George would be able to eat anything. And for some reason, I couldn’t get the song, ‘California Dreamin’ out of my head.”
So for two years, George and his mother would make the 60-mile drive from Petworth, West Sussex, north to London and fly 11½ hours to Long Beach to meet Dr. Inderpal Randhawa, CEO of the institute and medical director of Pediatric Pulmonary, Clinical Immunology & Allergy at the Miller Children’s Hospital.
“Like all of our patients during the COVID pandemic, we continued treatment, even when travel had halted or became more difficult,” Randhawa said in an email. “For the Game family, this provided a true challenge as international travel was very limited and they could not drive to our clinic like continental U.S. patients.”
Randhawa said the institute kept in constant contact with the family to make sure they maintained the treatment process.
“George now has so much to celebrate with this freedom to eat whatever, travel wherever, and enjoy the next school year by not sitting in the allergy-free zone,” he said.
George’s mother said she was impressed with the program after the first visit, when they found George had more allergies than they knew, which helped explained the problems he was having with other food groups.
“They do the most extensive testing George has done,” she said. “They take blood and spin it and it takes 10 weeks for results. They work out all the different food families and start with ones that provoke the least response and get the body used to it. They take tiny, incremental steps. They call it precision medicine and I can see why. They know exactly what will happen next.”
Randhawa said he founded the program in 2015, after becoming distressed by watching parents suffer the loss of their children to fatal allergic reactions. The institute has helped more than 9,000 children overcome food allergy issues, he added.
“I promised to find an innovative solution to change the status quo of food allergy treatment programs,” he said. “Using my early experience in lung transplant immunology coupled with collaboration with national allergy and immunology specialists, I developed TIP. This safe, innovative solution means that no parent or child has to worry about living a life filled with fear and anxiety from their food allergies.”
Fortunately, George’s brother, 10-year-old Sandy, was tested and has no food allergies.
“People are so fortunate to have this program here in Long Beach,” the boys’ mother said. “We were nervous in the beginning. We were grasping at straws. I’m so glad we took the risk to come here.”
Meanwhile, George is expanding his culinary talents.
“I’m getting good at making scrambled eggs and I’m trying out pancakes,” he said. “I’m going to start cooking to a wider range.
“To have food freedom is so wonderful,” he added. “I don’t have to bring my own food to parties.”
