How a meat pie nearly killed mum of two, Brigitte Bond

Mum-of-two, Brigitte Bond, was shocked to learn how she had developed a meat allergy. Photo / Facebook, Brigitte Bond

A Sydney mother ate a meat pie for dinner one night. By 2am the following morning she was struggling to breathe and collapsed on her bathroom floor.

Brigitte Bond, 45, had never had any reactions to eating meat in the past, but after being bitten by ticks she unwittingly developed a meat allergy.

Earlier that day Bond had sustained tick bites while weeding at her children's school in Manly.

She told Manly Daily she didn't realise until hours later when her skin became itchy that she was covered in dozens of pin prick sized ticks, which her husband scraped off with a knife.

After that she suffered three allergic reactions, but at the time was baffled as to the cause. Then after eating two portions of a homemade meat pie for dinner, she woke in the night covered in a rash and barely able to breath.

"I woke about 2am with a rash all over me, my throat was tight and constricted and I was having trouble breathing," said Bond, whose husband was away that night.

"This was worse than any of the other reactions. I managed to stumble into the bathroom and rip open a box of antihistamine and throw some tablets into my mouth before collapsing on the bathroom floor."

Bond woke about an hour later and staggered back to bed. The following morning she phoned a friend who told her about a family with meat allergies caused by ticks.

A blood test later confirmed the same was the case for Bond.

Allergy specialist Dr Sheryl van Nunen was the first to discover the association between anaphylaxis to meat from mammals following a person being bitten by ticks.

Dr Van Nunen told Manly Daily using a freezing agent such as Wart-Off to remove ticks would avoid the allergen being contracted.