Crossed Grain November 2020

SUPPORTER NEWS | 3 WIN £10,000 THIS CHRISTMAS HAVE YOU ORDERED YOURS? Let your loved ones know you’re thinking of them and support Coeliac UK, with our delightful range of Christmas cards, accessories and gifts . Choose from 16 card designs, or a pot luck pack, as well as gift wrap, bags and labels. Our popular Pass the Parcel games are also perfect for keeping the family entertained. For every Christmas product you purchase, at least 15% of the money will go to Coeliac UK, helping us to continue being there for you in 2021. Order yours today By post: (see leaflet inside newsletter) Online: www.charitycardshop.com/coeliacuk Over the phone: 01227 811640 Digital cards are also available to purchase online at www.coeliac.org.uk/shop . SUPPORTING OUR VOLUNTEERS We have been working hard to provide our volunteer groups with support and guidance to help them to continue doing what they do best. With resources ranging from IT and social media support, through to providing forums and portals for sharing inspirational ideas and suggestions, we are constantly reviewing the various tools we provide and continue to research new ones. Whilst face to face events are still not an option, the local groups social media has been a great source of reassurance to many. Regular zoom meetings, quizzes and a huge variety of competitions have helped to keep everyone entertained and busy including our younger members. If you have an idea you would like to share, to help us support our volunteers then please get in touch by emailing volunteering@coeliac.org.uk . Play our Christmas Raffle and you could win an incredible first prize of £10,000 , or one of 36 other cash prizes including 1 x £1000 , 1 x £500 , 4 x £50 and 30 x £10 . Every ticket you buy could bring you closer to a spectacular Christmas, whilst helping us to continue supporting people to live well gluten free in 2021. Visit www.raffleplayer.com/CoeliacUK to play today. Online entries close 16 December and the draw takes place on 18 December. Good luck! *Over 18s only, Terms and Conditions apply. Concerned about gambling too much? Visit begambleaware.org. NEW COELIAC DISEASE TEST COULD HELP IN FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 Coeliac UK is the largest single funder of research into coeliac disease in the UK. Find out more about how your support helps us fund research like Dr Elizabeth Soilleux’s at www.coeliac.org.uk/research . Coeliac disease researchers have found a new way to tell whether people have had Covid-19. The Coeliac UK funded Soilleux lab in Cambridge is working on a new coeliac disease (CD) test, which can give a more definite diagnosis and doesn’t require patients to eat gluten. Responding to the pandemic, researchers turned their attention to coronavirus, and have found they are able to use the same technology behind the new test method for CD to tell whether people have previously had Covid-19. Researchers hope this will tell us who is Covid-19 immune, and are planning larger studies to confirm this. You can watch Dr Elizabeth Soilleux discuss the test on video at www.coeliac.org.uk/liz-soilleux . About the test Dr Elizabeth Soilleux explains, “T-lymphocytes (white blood cells) cause coeliac disease, attacking the gut when gluten is eaten. Each T-lymphocyte has a couple of stretches of DNA that are unique to that cell and determine what that particular T-lymphocyte can attack. “The unique DNA sequences differ between people with coeliac disease and unaffected people and this knowledge forms the basis of our test. “T-lymphocytes are important for fighting viruses too and, using the same methods, we can tell whether people have previously had Covid-19 using DNA from a blood sample.”