Welcome to my little space on the internet. Some of you may already know me, and others may just have stumbled here, curious to see what its all about.

Well, let me try to fill you in. Im Linda. Swedish by birth, British by association and desert dweller by choice.

As a teen I had itchy feet, feet that took me to the UK for a short trip… a short trip that lasted over a decade! Then in 2006 feet got severely itchy again, and off I went to sunny Dubai where I met my husband. We had a whirlwind romance (without much romance), married quickly and had a baby boy, all within a year!

In 2009 I had my second child, that child was … well…. angry! Very very very angry. As parents me and my husband had almost been smug after our first child, he was so easy to deal with, so polite, pleasant, well behaved. Then along came – what we thought – our punishment for the smugness. The most difficult child imaginable.

The story of Aili is long, and not an easy one to tell, but we got our answers in the end, our angry child was not so angry after all, she was ill, she was being poisoned by her food. She tested positive for Celiac disease.

My mission in life changed. Where we lived – in Dubai – there was no support network, no Celiac association, no meet ups…. nothing. So I started my own support network. I started Gluten Free UAE. 

Then, over 2 years later, many events later, having met hundreds of Celiacs, people on this Celiac journey, all different, and yet still, so very much alike. Now, my own journey has also changed. The support network that I so badly needed and craved when my daughter was diagnosed is there, the meetings are there, Celiacs in the UAE have a place to go for help, now, now its time for my own journey.

Our Celiac kiddo is not one of those healthy Celiacs that live ‘normal’ happy lives after cutting gluten, our Celiac kiddo is instead one of those with issues, many of them. In August / September 2013 we decided to pack up me and the kids and head to Europe, Poland to be exact. The thought behind this move is to give the kiddo the cleaner air she so desperately needs, air with no dust or sand in it. Our aim is to stay here in Poland for 2 years or so, then we will review the situation and make our next plan. Maybe New Zealand? I hear its great for Gluten Free folks! 🙂

And so…. here we are. Gluten Free & Me has been born. If you read the blog you will learn the rest of the story.