Congratulations to the 2011 Sabrina Shannon Memorial Award Winners!

Anaphylaxis Canada would like to congratulate the winners of the second annual Sabrina Shannon Memorial Award - Sydney Proudfoot, age 18, from Oakville, Ontario, and Laura Butler, age 23, from St. John's, Newfoundland. They were chosen from a number of submissions received by Anaphylaxis Canada over the past few months. They both exhibited a strong commitment to raising allergy awareness as well as demonstrating significant efforts in educating those within their community on the seriousness of food allergies.

Sydney has shown great initiative in raising awareness, especially after being diagnosed with food allergies as a teenager. After a few years of managing her peanut and tree nut allergy in high school, Sydney realized that there were not many other students who carried their auto-injector with them at school. She was concerned that her fellow students could not afford one, or possibly had not known they were available. She utilized her sewing talents and started manufacturing a prototype of a waist pouch carrying case which she hopes to re-create for others. Sydney has also been an active member of Anaphylaxis Canada's Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) by participating on "ask a teen" panels for support groups, as well as being the lead role in the educational video "Food Allergies and High School". Sydney has been an active volunteer for Anaphylaxis Canada by presenting at its annual conferences as well as through media interviews including a feature in the Toronto Star. She will be attending Queens University this fall studying nursing.


Laura is studying medicine at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. After growing up with allergies to fish and shellfish, Laura became committed to helping teens deal with their allergies through various creative endeavors. Laura worked with the Lung Association in creating a pilot project educating students about asthma and allergies. She also helped design a summer camp for children with asthma and allergies entitled, Camp Breathe Away. This was a low-cost opportunity for children with moderate to severe asthma and food allergies to participate in an overnight, weekend-long summer camp experience, free of common food allergens.


Anaphylaxis Canada received many applications from across the country, and selecting the recipients was not an easy task. The applications highlighted unique ways of creating allergy awareness which included ideas on training their teachers on how to use an auto-injector, establishing presentations to educate others, and helping establish an allergy policy with camps, schools and cafeterias, just to name a few.

The award is dedicated to the life of Sabrina Shannon, an inspirational teenager who tragically suffered a fatal anaphylactic reaction in 2003. Sabrina's Law, named in her honour and a landmark legislation, was passed in Ontario in 2005, and continues to influence school board policies in Canada and worldwide.

Anaphylaxis Canada is proud to honour Sabrina's memory with this award.