Asthma symptoms can be down to allergies, but they can also be caused by other conditions Peopleimages/iStockphoto/getty images
Allergic
Theresa MacPhail (Allen Lane)
WHILE driving through his New Hampshire hometown one August morning in 1996, 47-year-old salesman James MacPhail was stung by a bee – and died.
He hadn’t known that he was allergic to bees, but, having been stung a few weeks previously, his immune system recognised the threat and redoubled its response, creating fatal anaphylactic shock.
His daughter Theresa wondered at the paradox of having such a strong physical response that “in …
