'LiveGlutenFree' Goes Live
Sean Stembridge, from Tantobie, County Durham, who was diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2008, became so used to blank stares when he asked for a gluten-free dish, that he decided to set up a website to help make gluten-free living easier.
Sean has now joined forces with friend and marketing whiz, Stephen Gorton from Perth, Scotland, in the complex task of developing LiveGlutenFree™.
LiveGlutenFree™ - an innovative website to help many thousands of people with coeliac disease or wheat intolerance find gluten-free restaurants, places to stay, recipes and products in the UK has been launched.
Run by a small team, LiveGlutenFree™ are committed to getting a better deal for anyone who's coeliac, has gluten intolerance, or has just chosen a healthy gluten free diet.
They are helping people find places to stay and eat, great food products and fantastic recipes.
Finding the right products and eating out are your biggest problems when you are coeliac or have gluten intolerances.
But as I struggled to find gluten-free food and restaurants, I realised that as a specialist in websites, I could use my experience and skills to produce an on-line resource to help everyone who was having to deal with the same problems. LiveGlutenFree™ helps people find suitable places to eat and stay, as well as products and recipes.
It's amazing how much interest there is in this project and how quickly everything grew once we started. I know from experience that finding gluten-free food was a challenge to anyone like me, but even I was surprised at the response.
We've had a lot of sleepless nights and our families haven't seen much of us recently, but it's all been worthwhile. We now have a website with lots of great information for people who need to maintain a gluten-free diet.
We aim to provide a gluten-free community where the public, businesses, gluten-free food producers and chefs can all get involved. We've got bundles of ideas for how to develop LiveGlutenFree™ and we'd welcome input from readers who'd like to share their experience.
Sean Stembridge
Figures for the UK show that about 1 in 100 - both children and adults - are coeliac sufferers.
This disease, caused by a reaction to the protein gluten found in wheat and similar proteins in other cereals, can lead to a range of severe symptoms.
From gluten-free restaurants, the LiveGlutenFree™ website now has gluten free places to stay, products and recipes.
As well as listing businesses from across the UK, the site has space for users to add their own recommendations for gluten-free friendly restaurants and products, and also share their own recipes with the rest of the community.
If you've eaten somewhere and you were impressed with it's ability to cater for gluten-free customers then Sean and Stephen want you to add the information to the site and share it with other users in your area.
You can find out more about Live Gluten Free and become a part of their Gluten Free community at www.liveglutenfree.co.uk