“It Was Like Someone Turned the Lights Back On”: Teen’s Life Saved by Emergency Allergy ‘Kitt’ at Bristol School
Eighteen-year-old Morgan Penny was moments away from sitting her A-level exam at Cotham School in Bristol when her world turned upside down. A single bite of a snack bar triggered a life-threatening allergic reaction - and if not for the school’s emergency anaphylaxis kit, she might not have lived to tell the story.
Watch the full story, as covered by BBC Bristol, below.
“I had this weird, overwhelming sense that something terrible was going to happen,” Morgan recalls. “It was like my body knew before I did.”
She had unknowingly eaten a Brazil nut hidden in a flapjack-style bar she picked up at a corner shop the night before. Although Morgan has a known nut allergy, the ingredients weren’t obvious, and exam stress clouded her usual diligence.
“My tongue started tingling, and my throat began to swell. I couldn’t swallow properly. I started to feel faint, like I was going to pass out.”
Morgan managed to alert a nearby teacher and was rushed to the first aid room - but her condition was rapidly deteriorating.
“I remember walking into the room and seeing her struggling to breathe, barely able to speak or keep her eyes open,” said Ed Carpenter, Cotham’s IT and Facilities Lead, who ended up being the one to administer the life-saving adrenaline. “She was going in and out of consciousness. I said straight away, ‘We need an ambulance, and we need to give her the adrenaline pen now.”’
The adrenaline came from a wall-mounted Anaphylaxis Kitt installed by Kitt Medical, a UK-based company providing emergency allergy kits and training to schools and qualifying businesses. Staff retrieved the Kitt, and Ed administered the injection.
“The second the pen went in, it was like someone turned the lights back on,” Morgan remembers. “I started to come back - my vision cleared, my throat began to open up. It was instant relief.”
Her mum, Annabel, was out walking the dog when she got the call no parent wants. “They just said, ‘Morgan’s had an anaphylactic shock, please come now,”
Annabel reflected on how easy it is to lapse on precautions. “She used to carry her own adrenaline pens, but they're bulky, expensive, and hard to keep in date. Things slipped. She’s a teenager, she’s stressed with exams - it just happened.”
Morgan had even tried to convince teachers she was fine so she could go into her exam. “I just kept saying, ‘I can do it, I can go in,’” she laughs now. “But obviously, I wasn’t okay.”
Paramedics arrived just minutes later and took Morgan to hospital, where she was monitored and treated with antihistamines. Thankfully, Morgan made a full recovery and was discharged from the hospital later that day.
“When I got there, she looked better, but you could tell - it had been close. She hadn’t had a reaction since she was 18 months old. We never expected this. That kit saved her life. If it wasn’t there - if they hadn’t been trained, if they hadn’t acted so quickly - I don’t want to think about what could have happened,” Annabel said.
“It was our first time using the Kitt,” Ed said. “I’m so thankful we had it. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without it.”
Aimi Potter, the deputy headteacher who was with Morgan at the time of her reaction, said
“When I heard Morgan was having a suspected allergic reaction, I had no expectation about how rapidly her condition would decline. Walking into that room quickly brought the reality home. As an educator, it truly was one of the most frightening moments of my career to date.”
She continued: “Our biggest priority amongst the many things we do in schools is keeping our students safe. We’re forever grateful that we had a Kitt nearby as it truly changed the game.
To be able to hold onto her, talk to her and see her coming back to us after the medication had been administered was a gift - from that moment I knew she would be okay.”
Kitt Medical was co-founded by Zak Marks, who lives with severe nut allergies himself. The company’s mission is to make emergency allergy care accessible everywhere, becoming the defibrillator’s next-door neighbour.
Since its launch in January 2023, their Anaphylaxis Kitts’ are now installed in over 1,000 locations across the UK, from a small primary school to iconic venues like The Royal Albert Hall and Alton Towers Resort. Each Kitt contains a subscription supply of adrenaline pens and includes online, CPD-accredited training, which 20,000 members of staff have now completed.
‘Kitts’ have been used to treat 16 life-threatening allergic reactions in just two years. Morgan’s was the 16th.
Kitt Medical recently secured investment from Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden on BBC’s Dragons’ Den. Deborah Meaden commented, “ I knew this was an investment that was going to make a real difference - I didn’t know how much, but saving lives… that’s the biggest difference you can make. Thank goodness the school had a Kitt installed, or it could have been a very different story.”
Morgan’s story is terrifying, but it’s also full of hope - it proves that there really is a need for greater allergy awareness and accessibility to adrenaline pens” said Zak.
Paediatric Allergist Professor Adam Fox OBE commented on the incident, saying:
“Anaphylaxis is a serious and growing issue across the UK, so it’s great to see initiatives like this that raise awareness in a positive way. Morgan’s story perfectly illustrates the importance of using adrenaline early in the course of a severe reaction. This will only happen when adrenaline is made as easily accessible as possible.”
Morgan, who plans to study medicine and become a paediatrician, says the experience has only strengthened her resolve. “I want to help people the way I was helped. I want to make sure stories like mine end the same way - alive.”
Annabel agrees. “These kits should be as common as fire extinguishers or defibrillators. They’re simple. They save lives.”
