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Oct 17Liked by Alison Lloyd

Thank you for a very entertaining article and especially for the excellent story. You're such a great writer! I've suffered from both hay fever and asthma in my time, and still react to grass pollen at times, but the Victorians were right — living near the sea is a great boon for sensitive lungs. Since moving to Rye I don't need my medicines any more. I told them that at the pharmacy and the pharmacist yanked me into the consulting room and lectured me for 20 minutes on how asthma doesn't go away in adulthood and how I should absolutely continue my medicine (which is now flagged as causing serious side effects) — that's the official stance of today's medicine. What a shame they don't look back at the Victorian wisdom that if your lungs are sensitive to pollution, move away from it. I suppose people would laugh at the notion of a fresh-air sanatorium now, but we're missing a trick.

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I'm sorry to hear that you're a hay fever sufferer too, but I'm glad Bostock's cure works for you as well! I am no medico, but it does sometimes seem to me we have become rather risk-averse, to the point, as you say, of causing other side effects...

(And thank you for the compliment on the story :)

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