Like all children, nine-year-old Eliza loves a birthday party but, unlike her classmates, she can never eat a piece of birthday cake.
Her coeliac disease diagnosis four years ago means she has to avoid any food containing gluten, a dietary protein found in wheat, barley and rye, or, as her mum Selina, from Blackburn, Lancashire, puts it, “all these really delicious foods she can no longer have”.
However, her classmates have rallied round.
“I think it’s pretty nice because, especially when it’s someone’s birthday and they’re giving out cakes, they wouldn’t just leave me out. They’re good friends and they give me a full packet of Haribo,” said Eliza.