- NSW teenager Jeremy Webb was the first Australian confirmed to die from a tick-induced red meat allergy
- Jeremy, 16, suffered breathing difficulties after eating beef sausages on a camping trip in June 2022
- His parents Myfanwy and Johnathan hope his death raises awareness about Alpha-gal syndrome to help others
Here Myfanwy Webb, 54, Central Coast, NSW tells her own story in her own words.
Legs pumping, I powered my bike up the mountain.
This is tough, I thought, my legs burning.
It was a sunny day in 2019 and my kids, Kalena, then 15, and Jeremy, 13, had joined me and their dad Jonathan, 51, on a ride up Mt Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest peak.
Seconds later Jeremy whizzed past. ‘See you at the top,’ he grinned, overtaking everyone.
Jeremy was happiest on a bike. When he was a toddler, I bought him an orange BMX and he’d pedal around for hours.
As he grew, that passion turned to mountainbiking, then motorbike riding.
He loved fixing engines too – lawnmowers, quad bikes, and motorbikes – and eventually bought a run-down van to restore with his mates after getting his learner’s permit.
He’d also dedicated years to achieving his black belt in karate.
And when he wasn’t tinkering in the shed, he loved helping people, volunteering as a support ambassador on the Microsoft help desk.
Jonathan and I were so proud of our young man.
His younger years hadn’t been as smooth-sailing though, after he was diagnosed with asthma, aged five.
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We’d moved to a block surrounded by bush on the NSW Central Coast and he’d had countless ticks.
I spent hours carefully removing them with tweezers and a magnifying glass. ‘Don’t scratch,’ I’d remind him.
Around age 10, he began vomiting and would get short of breath sometimes after eating red meat.
A bacon pasta, steak, or lamb meal could set him off.
One night just the fumes of roast pork caused Jeremy to become short of breath and vomit.
‘He began vomiting and would get short of breath sometimes after eating red meat’
At work as a medical research scientist, I read about a possible link between bites from the eastern paralysis tick, which are found throughout the eastern coast of Australia, and red meat allergies, known as
alpha-gal syndrome or mammalian meat allergy (MMA).
‘I reckon that’s it,’ I told Jeremy at the time. But he was never formally diagnosed.
The rest of us had been bitten too, but we never had issues.
For a while he avoided meat altogether, though sometimes he ate it without reacting.
I thought it was more like an intolerance.
Then in June 2022, Jeremy planned a weekend camping trip with his mates at MacMasters Beach, not far from home.
I’d be in Orange with Kalena, then 18, visiting mates, but Jonathan would be home, so I agreed.
The next morning as I dropped Jeremy at school, I made sure he had his asthma inhaler. ‘Have a good weekend,’ I said.
‘Will do, Mum,’ he smiled.
The next day he called while I was at the op shop.
‘How’s the trip?’ he asked.
‘Good,’ I said. ‘We’ve been wandering around town.’
That night, my phone rang at 2am. It was an emergency doctor from Gosford Hospital.
‘I’m so sorry, but your son has passed away,’ she said.
The words barely registered as she explained Jeremy had suffered an asthma attack shortly after the boys had eaten dinner.
His friends had bravely performed CPR after he collapsed.
When ambos arrived they took over but, devastatingly, he couldn’t be saved and was declared dead at 12.29am in hospital.
He was only 16.
Numb from shock, I woke Kalena and told her what’d happened.
When I felt like I could drive, we jumped in the car and headed home.
‘‘I love you,’ I whispered, holding his hand as tears stained my cheeks’
The four-and-a-half-hour drive felt like a nightmarish blur.
When we arrived, Jonathan was at the hospital.
The police had knocked on our door to deliver the soul-crushing news to him.
A few weeks later, Kalena came with me to the morgue. Jeremy looked peaceful, a small smile on his handsome face.
‘I love you,’ I whispered, holding his hand as tears stained my cheeks.
Two weeks later more than 300 people attended Jeremy’s celebration of life. As the service began, a beam of sunlight broke through the clouds and shone directly onto Jonathan, Kalena and me.
It felt like Jeremy was there with us.
Months after his death, I couldn’t shake the feeling asthma hadn’t been to blame for my boy’s death.
I kept thinking back to his suspected meat allergy. Researching further, I read that alpha-gal syndrome could cause anaphylaxis in severe cases.
For years he’d wake in the night struggling to breathe. We believed it was nocturnal asthma. Sometimes it got so bad he needed hospital treatment.
I learned the reactions can be delayed hours after eating.
Now, I realised many of those episodes could have been allergic reactions.
His asthma medication often didn’t seem to help and by morning his eyelids were swollen.
And Jeremy had eaten beef sausages with his mates before he died.
Had a sausage killed my son? I wondered, devastated by the thought.
In December 2023, with Jonathan’s support, I gathered Jeremy’s hospital records and the medical research I’d done on tick-induced meat allergies and emailed the NSW State Coroner requesting an inquest.
I knew it wouldn’t bring our boy back, but it was a chance to help others.
Ten agonising months later, we received confirmation our request had been accepted.
‘Had a sausage killed my son? I wondered, devastated by the thought’
In November 2025, the inquest began. For three days I listened as every detail of Jeremy’s final hours were examined.
In February this year, Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes delivered her findings, stating Jeremy’s fatal anaphylaxis occurred as a result of acute exacerbation of his asthma caused by a severe allergic
reaction to mammalian meat.
Jeremy was the first confirmed Australian death linked to a tick-induced red meat allergy, and only the second person in the whole world.
‘Jeremy was the first confirmed Australian death linked to a tick-induced red meat allergy’
Throughout, experts said that Jeremy’s previous admission to hospital was a ‘missed opportunity’ to flag the life-threatening risks of his allergy.
As a result, Magistrate Forbes recommended our boy’s death be used as a case study by the Central Coast Local Health District.
She also recommended a training module be developed for emergency department registrars.
I felt elated to have answers that would help save other lives. ‘Jeremy would be proud,’ I said.
‘He would,’ Jonathan replied, hugging me.
At last, we had a chance to warn others about alpha-gal syndrome. It was our boy’s legacy.
There’s no way Jeremy would have eaten that sausage if he’d known it could kill him.
Jonathan, now 58, Kalena, 22, and I talk about Jeremy all the time.
I still have one of his bikes. Whenever I ride it, I feel close to him again.
Jeremy gives me the strength to keep pushing forward.
How to treat tick bites
Tick Induced Allergies Research & Awareness (Tiara) advise that the best way to prevent a tick bite is by wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants when visiting areas where ticks occur, tucking pants into socks, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, wear light-coloured clothing, and using insect repellent.
If you’ve been bitten by a tick, Tiara warn squeezing the parasites with tweezers will encourage them to inject their saliva into your skin. Instead, they recommend using an ether-containing spray to freeze the ticks and allow them to drop off.
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