RECORDED Thu 02 Oct 2025
SUMMARY KEYWORDS: Allergic conditions, food allergy, anaphylaxis, school support, mental health, allergy management, adrenaline injector, school environment, allergy awareness, allergy impact, allergy prevention, allergy education, allergy support, allergy resources, allergy advocacy.
SPEAKERS: Maria Said, Megan Gilmour
Megan Gilmour 00:00
This episode is proudly brought to you by the TPG Telecom Foundation dedicated to creating opportunities to improve the health, wellbeing and education of Australian communities in need.
Hi, I’m Megan Gilmour, MissingSchool, Co-founder and CEO, and this is Live & Learn. This is the podcast that unearths insights at the intersection of health and education, building a powerful alliance to keep kids with complex health conditions connected to school from anywhere. The podcast is recorded on Ngunnawal land, and we acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of this land and the land on which you’re listening.
Welcome to our weekly webcast, a place to zero in on the interplay between health and education and to amplify the voices of those supporting school students to navigate their educational journeys despite complex health challenges.
And today on Live & Learn, we have Maria Said. Maria is a director of Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia (AAA), and director and Co-Chair of the National allergy Council and a registered nurse. She joined AAA in 1993 when her son was diagnosed with several allergic conditions.
As a volunteer, Maria became national president in 1999 and then CEO until resigning in September 2025. Internationally recognised, Maria was appointed a member of the Order of Australia in 2022 for her tireless work in the field of allergy and anaphylaxis. Welcome Maria. We’re so excited to have you on Live & Learn.
Maria Said 01:43
Thanks for the invitation. Megan, good to be here.
Megan Gilmour 01:46
So today we’re here to talk about supporting school connections for students with complex medical and mental health conditions. So, let’s head into the first question.
Maria, tell us how allergic conditions impacts kids and why it’s something every Australian needs to know and care about.
Maria Said 02:07
So allergic conditions include conditions such as such as food and insect allergy, which can be potentially life threatening. We know that food allergy affects many children, 8% of school age children, so it’s important that we have an understanding of their challenges.
But it’s not just those at risk of anaphylaxis. It’s children with allergic asthma, children that have atopic dermatitis or eczema, and we also need to consider children with conditions that are sometimes trivialised, such as allergic rhinitis, especially, you know, children in upper primary into high school years, because allergic rhinitis can affect sleep and therefore your concentration and your ability to be your best self when at school.
Megan Gilmour 03:23
That’s certainly something every Australian needs to know and care about, especially when you’re pointing out the number of children affected, which we’ll get to into a bit more detail later.
So, I guess many people probably assume things about allergic conditions. What’s the million-dollar question you get from parents or loved ones when their child experiences or is diagnosed with an allergic condition
Maria Said 03:51
Well as parents, I think we often question what we did wrong for our child to have developed a condition, especially a condition when it’s a condition that is chronic, and often, you know, a child that has one allergic condition has another allergic condition, and often families that have several children will have several children with different allergic conditions.
So allergic disease is a real burden on people, because you need treatment to manage it, and sometimes compliance with that treatment can be challenging for children, so the ongoing management, especially if we’re talking about the triggers of allergic reactions that can put someone in a potentially life threatening situation, that can really affect a child’s schooling. And whilst they don’t miss bulk amounts of school, their schooling is certainly affected by it.
Megan Gilmour 05:17
Yes, thanks for pointing that out, and I think one of the most critical things about what you’ve said, in addition to the number of children affected, is that it is and can be life threatening. So, what’s the most important thing that you want you know folks to know when there’s a child who has, as you said, one or more allergic conditions.
Maria Said 05:46
I think importantly in the school environment, it’s important to understand a child’s health needs, for the most part, allergic conditions such as allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma and so forth are managed by parents, and the school may, at times need to give medication or consider a child going out into a windy, high pollen environment, if it’s pollen that triggers their asthma.
At school, a child that has a potentially life-threatening allergy, especially when it’s food – and children need to eat whilst they’re at school, and they don’t want to be different, they want to be like everyone else – but we say to parents that we need to accept, and the children need to understand, that they are different and they have a special need.
And that we need to work around how to keep them safe, and we need teachers and carers, anyone that’s looking after them, to be able to do their best, do what’s manageable, to prevent an allergic reaction, to be able to recognise a reaction when it happens, and then for emergency treatment to be given.
So, most of these children will be prescribed an adrenaline injector if they have a food allergy. Some are not, though, so that’s important for school environments to understand as well. But those children that have food allergy that are not prescribed an adrenaline device still need to be managed in a way where they avoid the food that triggers their allergic reaction.
Megan Gilmour 08:03
Which I imagine can be quite challenging in a school environment where kids, you know, cross contamination and all of those sorts of things, and create a large degree of anxiety, maybe for the children themselves, which we can get into in a little bit, but also families sending their children to school, and then teachers having those kids in school as well.
Is there anything you’d like families and schools to know? Is it these kids can have a good and normal school life with the right things in place?
Maria Said 08:41
It’s really important for schools to understand that children with food allergy can certainly do almost all activities in school. They can go on excursions. They can go on camp. Some things do need to be done differently to increase safety, but it is critically important that these children are included and that there are manageable accommodations so that these children can participate and not be felt like not feel like they are excluded. So that is a really important thing to consider.
There are times though, that an activity might be seen as an extreme risk. So, if a school, for example, is taking a group of children to Thailand, and one of those children has a peanut allergy, and they’re going to be in remote areas, the risk may be too high, and that’s really something that the school and the parent and the student, if the students’ of an age where they need to be involved in that discussion as well, of course, but almost always, there can be things done to increase safety so these children can be included in all activities.
Megan Gilmour 10:23
Which is very hopeful. And if you’re willing to share, Maria, I think we know the answer to this, but if you’re willing to elaborate, we’d love to know what brought you into the world of AAA or allergic conditions.
Maria Said 10:39
Yes. So, look, my background is a nursing background, and I worked mainly in pediatrics and emergency, and then I had children, and it wasn’t until I gave my second child a peanut butter sandwich when he was 12 months old and he had an allergic reaction.
I spoke to my GP at that point, and he said, ‘Oh, well, just don’t give him peanut butter.’ And it was really downplayed for about three years, and he’d had other reactions during that time, so I removed peanuts from home.
And if he was staying with a family, extended family member, I would always supply his food and tell them not to give him anything. So, I was seen as the cautious nurse mother, and it was quite difficult at that point in time, until he was properly diagnosed and then prescribed an adrenaline device when he was three.
So, you know, as a nurse, as someone who speaks English, someone who’s articulate, someone who is assertive and not afraid to speak up, I had so many challenges with managing this child at risk of anaphylaxis in the community.
And I joined a support group that had just launched back in 1993 I think I was member number 17, and then, it was on the northern beaches of Sydney. It wasn’t long after that, I started a subgroup in Western Sydney and became heavily involved in helping other people with management.
Because that was back in the day where we had schools refuse applications, refuse enrollments. We had childcare centers refusing children with food allergy. There was very little known, very little support, no mobile phones, no internet. People felt very, very isolated.
So I became a volunteer, and before I knew it, my home phone number was the support number because I was a health professional, and then, yes, I became president, still in a volunteer capacity in 99 and then I think in 2006 we received our first bit of government funding that moved us out of my home and someone else’s home into an office, and the rest is history.
Megan Gilmour 13:35
Well, thank you for that elaboration. I don’t even want to think about what if there were not people like you, given what you’ve said in your own experience, and almost being sort of sent away as somebody who was a bit too hyper vigilant.
It sounds like you know when what we’ve heard is this is a serious matter and needs to be taken seriously, and that loneliness that people were experiencing, and shockingly, children not being accepted into schools. And we’ll get into that a little bit more as well.
But knowing all that you know, which is a lot, the amount of time you’ve been doing this, and you did come with this medical professional background as well. So, it’s not only the lived experience, but that was sat on a foundation of strong pediatric emergency care as well.
Knowing all of that, what’s your biggest hope for kids with allergic conditions and their families when navigating this journey?
Maria Said 14:50
My biggest hope is that parents and individuals who develop allergy, because you can develop an allergy, even a potentially life-threatening allergy, at any time in your life, there’s an increase in childhood allergy but there’s an increase in adult-onset allergic disease as well.
My hope is that people are able to access the right care at the appropriate time before they spend weeks or months on the internet, on Facebook groups, being misinformed and accepting myths as the truth, because that really impairs their ability to become empowered, to have a balanced approach to management that allows them the opportunity that every other person has.
You know, there are people who are scared to eat out, for example, when they have a food allergy and you can eat out. You might need to eat simpler foods that don’t contain a lot of ingredients, because there’s less risk of having an allergic reaction.
And sure, it’s a drag to, you know, to start your social event by speaking to wait staff and saying you have a food allergy, and then checking every food item that comes that’s put in front of you. But missing out on that experience means you’re missing out on a lot of life, because food is part of so many of our interactions.
And I often say to parents that we need to be taking these children to eat out as regularly as we can. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to enjoy it. And I can say to you, hand on heart, that when I took my son out, I would sit there waiting for him to clear his throat or tell me he felt sick or whatever. Did I enjoy it? No, but it was part of my role playing to him how he needs to look after himself as he gets older.
And it’s about education. It’s about empowerment, and it’s about these kids understanding that whatever their health condition is, that they can find a way to participate like anyone else, but they might need to do it a bit differently.
Megan Gilmour 17:36
Yes. Wonderful, that idea of modeling and also recognising the huge responsibility that it is and how terrifying that could be for a parent, and having the support of organisations like yours to be able to have more confidence about how to go about these things, and also picking up the fact that the earlier that people get the right information, the better sort of processes, journey and way of managing this can take place.
So, I guess hidden in all of that, there are some common, perhaps frustrating, public misconceptions about allergic conditions. Have you seen those? And how have you seen those impact kids and families?
Maria Said 18:28
Yes. So, you know, a lot of people believe that every allergic reaction gets worse. You know that the next one will be worse than this one, and that is a myth. The truth is that it’s unpredictable, and that there are many factors that have an impact on how severe an allergic reaction will be at any given time.
So, you know, it’s important for people to understand that, and I think people hang on to the life-threatening aspect of this. And many health professionals will often say to us, but death is rare, and as someone who over the last 30 years has connected with quite a number of families who lost loved ones, I can share that almost all of those cases could have been prevented.
I think education – implementation of a number of strategies to help keep children safe – education on how to recognise an allergic reaction, how to give an adrenaline device, and the importance of managing that emergency, and the way it needs to be managed, is just critical.
What I’m trying to say to people now is that, not that death is rare, which it is, but we know it can be prevented but think of the 1000s of people that have anaphylaxis and recover. That’s what we need to focus on; that almost always, these people recover, and you’ve got a greater chance of recovering after anaphylaxis if there are not a lot of gaps in management.
So, read food labels; disclose your food allergy when eating out; always have your medication close by; carry your ASCIA Action Plan for anaphylaxis, which steps you through what to do, what signs and symptoms look like and what to do.
Lay on the ground, or sit on the ground with your legs outstretched, don’t run for help; have the medication brought to you; if you give a dose of adrenaline, an ambulance is called, and in five minutes, you’re not feeling any better, or you’re feeling worse that, and you have a second dose available administer it.
So, you know, it’s about looking at prevention, but then knowing how to manage an emergency. And the Swiss cheese effect is something that we often see when we talk with people who have lost loved ones; that there was something wrong almost every step of the way, and that’s heartbreaking for everybody involved.
You know, people didn’t go out – a school, a camp facility, a restaurant – don’t go out thinking, well, today I’m going to be slack if someone with food allergy comes to my you know, is in my care. This really does affect everyone, and we all have a role to play in helping manage it,
Megan Gilmour 22:22
Yes, preparation, management, prevention, as you’re saying. And I can see where you know, in cases where you know people do die, it’s knowing that it could have been prevented adds deeply to the grief, you know, and would make that so much harder to process an already terrible thing to process, but knowing that would make it much harder?
Maria Said 22:55
Yes, it does. And when I say could have been prevented. I’m talking about, specifically about food anaphylaxis, you know, insect anaphylaxis, you know, I think it’s harder in one sense, often it’s people working in rural, remote areas who are in the middle of a paddock, and their emergency devices might be in the car on the roadside, and they have to run back to get their medication because they’re on their own.
And then, of course, we have medication allergy where you don’t know that someone has an allergy to a medication until given. But you know, even if we interrogate insect reactions and medication reactions, we can see that, you know, maybe x, y and z should have been done in this sequence.
And we’ve worked with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in health care to actually develop an acute anaphylaxis clinical care standard to help with the management of anaphylaxis, even, by health professionals and paramedics and so forth.
Megan Gilmour 24:13
Yes, and all of this body of knowledge that’s been developed is sitting right there, waiting for people to access and learn from and that’s part of the legacy of the work here. It’s just, you know, learning, implementing, improving, and I can very much hear and know that that’s what you’ve been doing for all this time, which is such a fantastic thing for families, for the community.
And as you say these things can take place in restaurants or in public places, which involves a lot of other people as well who are thoroughly close to the person. So, that would be quite traumatic as well to try and deal with if you didn’t have these ‘ready reckoners’ and yes.
You mentioned this before, but we’ll ask it again. How many Australian children and youth are living with allergic conditions right now?
Maria Said 25:21
Firstly, I’d like to say that back in 2007 there was an economic impact report that our peak medical body, the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, released that showed that 4.1 million Australians had allergic disease.
That report was again conducted in 2024, and the figure has doubled. We now have 8.2 million people with allergic disease, roughly up to 8% of school age, children have allergic disease. Some of those children will outgrow allergies. Sorry, I’m focusing now on food allergy – the 8% – some of those children will outgrow allergies to food such as milk and egg, leaving about 5% of teenagers with allergic disease.
Megan Gilmour 26:30
Right, and just to put that into perspective, food allergy, sorry, 8% is around 320,000 school children, about 4 million, just over 4 million school students in Australia. So, if I’ve done my maths correctly, it’s a lot of kids.
Maria Said 26:49
It’s a lot of kids. And let me say that it was rare back in 1990 when my son was diagnosed. It is not rare now. One in 10 babies has a food allergy.
Megan Gilmour 27:01
One in 10, wow. Okay, so, that 4.1 million from 2014 to the doubling in the recent count is astonishing, and we can’t get into it now, but
Maria Said 27:22
What’s causing this ?! [laughter]
Megan Gilmour 27:25
Yes, yes, is it because there’s just been more awareness about it as well – there’s that, is that a contributing factor, perhaps? But it’s an important one for us to consider, without getting into the detail, simply because our first question was why should all Australians know and care about this? Well, that’s what we’re looking at. That’s a significant increase and tells us something about what’s happening in our community in that respect.
Maria Said 28:00
Yes, Australia’s seen as the allergy capital of the world.
Megan Gilmour 28:03
Wow, okay
Maria Said 28:04
We were seen, as I said, it was rare in the 90s, my son was the only one in the school when he started kinder. You’d be hard pushed not to find at least one child in each classroom with food allergy now and then, think of all the other allergic conditions that I’ve spoken of.
It is very much on the increase. It’s not just awareness. There’s been a fivefold increase in presentations of anaphylaxis to hospital emergency departments. So, yes, it’s an epidemic.
Megan Gilmour 28:42
It’s, well, there’s a whole range of things sitting in there. The one that really jumps out at me is Australia being the allergy capital of the world. And if that’s not a reason for Australians know and care about this issue, then I don’t know what could convince us?
Yes, I have my own thoughts about that, as a person who experiences significant hay fever and so on, especially for some reason here in Canberra, where I live, and yes I was away on a holiday recently, and I noticed that the rhinitis wasn’t happening, and then I came back, and straight away.
Maria Said 29:30
I think it’s plane trees and rye grass. Canberra is well known.
Megan Gilmour 29:35
Yes, and the surrounding areas, because we’re basically in the middle of the country.
Maria Said 29:41
Yes,
Megan Gilmour 29:42
And I think also, probably with my hereditary background from whenever ago.
Maria Said 29:51
That history, yes,
Megan Gilmour 29:52
So Australian native plants are something that sets me off as. And of course, Darcy, my son, the reason I started MissingSchool, although he ended up with blood disorders, one of the first presentations that something wasn’t quite right, he was he was having allergic reactions to cold water – like skin redness and swelling and lip swelling and, it is really terrifying when, when you’re bundling up a child from the beach and running up to, you know, it is,
Maria Said 30:38
Frightening
Megan Gilmour 30:39
It is, I can attest to that anxiety that sits there when that’s happening, of course, but also, as you’re saying, just in living and wondering, and then trying to, you know, don’t suck icy poles,
Maria Said 30:56
Don’t have ice cream.
Megan Gilmour 30:57
Yes, it was really, really stressful. That’s not there anymore at all. So, it’s just sort of sharing a personal perspective there, and that’s a lot of people.
So, you’ve mentioned that there is a risk of delayed diagnosis. So, I’m going to skip right ahead and just hit that point again, which is the question I had. And your petition to people, to find out, to work it out, to get early advice and avoid social media, and you know the myths and the other things that can delay that recognition, which can get you so much support.
Are there any other complications that you’d like to share with us about kids, specifically school kids, I guess, with allergic conditions, and what they face? Is there, for example an increased anxiety for them with this, or depression, or what does it look like?
Maria Said 32:07
Yes, there certainly is increased anxiety. And we often find that if a parent is anxious, the child is often anxious. If we’re talking about management of food allergy. And that anxiety could potentially lead to disordered eating, where a child will only eat at home or in particular space, only accept food from a particular person, especially if they’ve had an allergic reaction outside of home.
Sometimes, though, it could be mum that’s accidentally poured cups of milk for the two children, one is soy and one is cow’s milk, and there’s an accident, yes. So, you can understand, you know, the parent in that scenario would absolutely bash themselves up, and the child would be for a period of time, probably less trusting of mum.
Accessing psychological support has been, has been a bit of a problem because, and we’re working on this with the Australian Psychological Society developing a training course for psychologists so they have an understanding of food allergy and anaphylaxis, and what we see as normal treatment, as opposed to someone you know, being obsessive about reading a food label or asking whether food contains x, y or z, because that’s part of our normal management for safety.
Children with food allergy, as I mentioned earlier, do sometimes need to do things a different way. Sometimes parents won’t allow them to get food from the school canteen. Sometimes their parents come on excursions with them, and that helps the teacher, because the poor teacher is looking after this many children.
Food bans do not work, so we don’t support food bans, and asking for parents not to send in messy egg sandwiches is very different to an egg ban. So, I just want to make that clear. I think, you know, a reasonable approach, if a teacher only got three six-year-olds that have got a peanut butter sandwich, then that’s easier for that teacher to manage in that scenario.
But once the child reaches an age where they can see that one of the kids has got a peanut butter sandwich, and they know they’re not allowed to share food. They’re not, they eat only food that mum and dad have prepared, that they wash their hands before and after eating. Then they can manage themselves in an environment where the food allergen is there.
So, yes, I think after anaphylaxis is also another important time where often the child can be traumatised; the parent can be traumatised.
Megan Gilmour 35:43
It’s not a pleasant experience.
Maria Said 35:46
No, it’s frightening. It’s frightening for the child and it’s frightening for the parent. And some children have needle phobias, and at the present point in time, it’s a needle that reverses anaphylaxis and needs to be given as part of first aid.
So, teachers, who became teachers because they didn’t want to be nurses, are now being asked to administer adrenaline. So, we need to think about everyone in this picture and really support the community in making as normal an environment and experiences for people who are at risk.
Megan Gilmour 36:32
Yes, and I think just now as we’re about to skip into a couple of details about school before we wrap up, on all these calls that I have with people from different health organisations and community organisations, I’ve developed so much more empathy for teachers in in our current world. There’s a whole range of reasons why that is, but I just imagine how many children in a classroom have a chronic health condition, let alone with a mixed mental health condition and vice versa.
Maria Said 37:17
Yes
Megan Gilmour 37:18
And here you’ve got a teacher who might not even know what anaphylaxis means before this children in their class or might not know what this condition or a rare disease is – and there they are. I mean, they’re holding all of that for all these children.
Maria Said 37:36
Yes
Megan Gilmour 37:37
So, I just want to note that there because what you’re describing is potentially a teacher in a situation where anaphylaxis presents, and the pressure on them to save this child’s life, that would be a huge pressure.
And organisations like yours are there, making that clearer, simpler and relieving some of that burden of responsibility, in terms of emotional burden of responsibility, to be able to act with clarity and speed and know what to do at that point.
Maria Said 38:22
Yes. We’re here to support parents of children and individuals who have allergic disease, but we offer support to anyone who has these people in their care, or in their workplace, or as part of their scout group, or on their camp, in their restaurant.
We know how difficult and challenging it is, and it’s important that everyone feels supported, because this is hard. It is hard. And we’re not pointing the finger and saying you must do X, Y and Z, and just stepping back, it really is a community approach.
Megan Gilmour 39:06
Yes. And I just want to celebrate that again and thank you for that. And you mentioned earlier that children with allergic conditions do miss school. You mentioned that it might not be long durations of school might, in some case it may be, but typically it’s for shorter amounts of time across their whole school life, if their allergy or allergic conditions were onset at an earlier stage in life than when school started.
Do you want to add anything to the missing school conversation in terms of how much or what those patterns look like?
Maria Said 40:02
Look, one thing I do want to state is that some parents feel that school is not a safe place for their children, and they opt to home school. And from my perspective, with the right supports in place, children with allergic disease can attend school. And when these children are kept in a home environment because of their allergies. That kind of helps feed into the anxiety and
Megan Gilmour 40:51
takes them out of mainstream communities.
Maria Said 40:54
That’s right, that’s right, and their illness or their allergic condition is tagged as the cause of that, and they, it becomes their identity. And you know, we want these children to have experiences like any other child, and to be able to attend school.
When they do miss school, if they do have an extended period off school because they might have infected eczema and need to be hospitalised, or they may need hospitalisation for a food challenge, and the child reacts and then has to stay in hospital overnight. Or if it’s a severe reaction, they might need to spend a few days in intensive care. And I’m sure that, you know, once the child goes home, mum’s going to feel less, mum and dad will feel less able to send the child off to school after that scare.
So, I think, I think for schools to be aware of that and aware of the complexity of allergic disease is helpful that many children have more than just one allergic condition. They can have multiple and it can affect them in different ways. I’ve often heard teachers say, but he looks so well. He looks well because he’s on, you know, his antihistamine, his nasal sprays, his asthma preventer, his asthma reliever, and if you don’t feed him the food that he’s allergic to, then you know,
Megan Gilmour 42:45
Well, it is an invisible condition, right? And that’s worth recognising here, and that can lead to complications in itself, I guess, which we’ve covered off what that might look like. So, we, like you, are here for these kids.
We truly believe that school continuity can happen through digital means, if a child can’t be at school for a period of time in order to keep that continuity with their you know, their community, school, their peers, who they see as their many of whom they see as their friends, perhaps, and we’re working to get this two way digital connection, hybrid models implemented across mainstream schools, I don’t see that we can address chronic school absences or intermittent absences any other way at scale.
And for some people, as you’re saying, it feels like and in reality may be the case at that time, for those families and kids that it’s not really a choice they have to take that child out of school. And I just want to see more positive pressure on our school systems to include, you know, all bodies or brains or behaviors and kids from all circumstances, because that’s what education is about. It’s so much more than just the academics.
Maria Said 44:22
It’s about equity.
Megan Gilmour 44:24
It’s about equity. It’s about, you know, I talked about this with someone I interviewed yesterday, the sliding doors, moment of how a child’s potential could have been opened up and the things they could have done but might not get to do because they’ve been sort of segregated or, taken out of situations that might have given them greater opportunities and support.
It’s really, really important to have this conversation, and I’m conscious of the time here, so I just want to skip to – is there anything you would like to tell us that you haven’t already said to do with critical times at school, or things that you’d like to see change in schools that we really want to flag up here as we, you know, reach the end of our conversation. What would a perfect scenario look like for you? I think you’ve covered it but fill in any gaps for us.
Maria Said 45:27
I think I’d love for schools to be aware of the best practice guidelines that we’ve created for schools to help them with management of food allergy and anaphylaxis, because the best practice guidelines and the supporting resources that can be found at allergyaware.org.au will help support staff in schools. You know it’s easy for us all to point the finger, but to know that there is information there to support, so that children with allergic disease can be included.
And I guess my other plea is for parents to be reasonable about what they’re asking of the school and to be more understanding of the fact that a teacher has many children with differing needs, several special needs.
And that it is a give and take, and some things have heavier weighting. If it’s a child with a potentially life-threatening food allergy, then that’s something that really does need to be managed in an appropriate way, but you know, to not be dismissive of conditions that can affect a child’s schooling and to try and make accommodations where possible.
Megan Gilmour 47:24
Yes, that’s a great note to end on. And just before I do the shout out, well, no, I’ll do the shout out to allergic conditions Australia. You’ll find them at allergyfacts.org.au [https://www.allergyfacts.org.au] go there, give generously, find the resources, find the support, help out, if you can, just a big shout out. And for Maria, I want to thank you for joining us today, but I also want to recognise your extraordinary contribution to Australia, to our community, and the work that you’ve done as you move into your next journey, I hope that it includes some more rest for you.
Let’s just take a moment to say Maria was, her home was the organisation, and her home phone number was the hotline, and here we are looking at an extraordinary body of work that has helped countless families and kids to live better lives, to be safer and to really be able to get the best out of their world. So, thank you for all your work, Maria and for joining us today on Live & Learn.
Maria Said 48:53
Thanks so much. Really great to speak with you this afternoon. Thanks, Megan, thank you.
Megan Gilmour 48:59
Thanks everyone for tuning in. Help us turn up the volume so all kids are seen and heard. Follow along, like share comment or leave us a review, because we love hearing from you. And if you want to donate, head to missingschool.org.au [https://www.missingschool.org.au] because every dollar makes a difference.
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