'Three words that saved my life': Dying woman rescued by phone app

A young woman's life was saved by an app after she suffered a terrifying allergic reaction while driving.

Madi Bond, 24, experienced an anaphylactic shock while making her way home to Somerset early last month.

The electrical engineer, who suffers with idiopathic anaphylaxis – meaning she can experience severe and potentially life-threatening reactions to triggers – felt an episode come on after passing some roadworks.

She felt her symptoms begin as she drove over the Tamar Bridge from Cornwall on her way to Taunton, where she lives with her boyfriend, Dan Cooper, 24, a marketing executive.

Bond, who often does not know her triggers and has experienced 23 anaphylactic reactions in two years, said: “I remember seeing roadworks and, even though my windows were up, there was a chemical smell.

“I don’t know if they’d used paint stripper and there was a trigger in that, if it was the Tarmac, or what it was, but suddenly, I couldn’t smell anything any more, as my nasal passages were clogged.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’ve got to get off this bridge, I know I’m going to have a reaction and I just hope it’s not a bad one.'”

After crossing the bridge, she pulled into a lay-by a third of a mile down the road and called her parents.

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“I said, ‘Mum, I need you to come and get me. I can’t drive any more. I’m not going to be OK for much longer.’

“Then I phoned my sister who said, ‘Madi, you’re not actually answering questions now. You aren’t making any sense. You need your EpiPen now.'”

Grabbing her EpiPen, used to inject adrenalin, which can be a lifesaver for people with anaphylaxis, she then rang 999.

But when she tried to describe her location, feeling dizzy and wheezing as her breathing began to fail, she was struggling to focus and unable to give the ambulance controller a precise location.

Bond said: “That was when the controller asked if I had the what3words app on my phone – which I did.”

The app divides the world into three-metre squares, each with their own unique three-word address – for instance, the front door of 10 Downing Street is "slurs.this.shark".

By opening the app and clicking a blue arrow, she was able to give the operator the three words of her location, which were translated for them by GPS.

She continued: “Within a couple of minutes after that, an ambulance arrived.

“I don’t know what would have happened without the app.”

Bond’s first anaphylactic episode happened when she drank a weak pint of Malibu and coke as she turned 18.

She said: “I ended up in hospital on my 18th birthday! I was really ill. I was at my friend’s house and her mum called an ambulance.”

She continued: “I was itching, I had a rash and my breathing had gone.

“I’d drunk a little bit before and my stomach had been upset after, but it hadn’t been really severe.”

Bond was tested for her sensitivity to alcohol by the hospital’s allergy clinic. After a pinprick with vodka she was fine, and when some was wiped on her lip she was simply itchy.

But when she was given tiny amounts to drink, after 2.5mls they were forced to stop.

She said: “My reaction to alcohol was so severe, it was too dangerous to carry on.”

This was the start of a terrifying journey with anaphylaxis that has seen her experience so many episodes it has been impossible for medics to fully identify her triggers.

Stress, exercise, oranges, milk, the opiate painkiller Oramorph, anti-inflammatory medication, alcohol and tomatoes are just some of her known triggers.

Bond said: “I’ve had 23 anaphylactic reactions in the last two years. With at least seven of them, I didn’t know what it was I’d reacted to.

“The worst one happened earlier this year when was I was asleep and dreamed I was having a reaction, only to wake up and find I couldn’t breathe.”

She continued: “Nothing around me had changed, so I have no idea what caused it.

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“I’ve reacted to oranges and tomatoes in the past, but not all the time. I’ve always felt a bit itchy if my boyfriend has peeled an orange – I never eat them.”

She added: “Once he peeled one when I was feeling ill and then I was gone. I couldn’t breathe.”

Exercise can also be a trigger and Bond, a keen cricketer, has reacted to deep heat spray being used on injuries in her vicinity after playing.

Mild reactions cause an itchy upper body and sometimes lower body rash, hay fever symptoms and some swelling, normally around her cheekbones, but when the reaction is severe her throat starts closing and she finds it hard to breathe.

She said: “Sometimes, after antihistamine, it will calm down after half an hour.

“Luckily, I react well to adrenalin, too. But, when it’s really severe, I get dizzy and can’t breathe.”

Bond continued: “I haven’t passed out yet, but it’s likely to happen in the future.

"I used to find it absolutely terrifying and thought I was going to die.

“As stress is a trigger for me, though, I have to try and stay calm as much as possible.”

She was hospitalised 15 times in 2020 and had reactions every two or three weeks for the first few months of this year but says they have calmed down now: “I had a reaction with a six-week gap and another with a six-week gap. Then my last reaction was after the bridge on July 7.”

And Bond is eternally grateful that she downloaded the what3words app.

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She initially downloaded it to feel safer while walking her dogs Bertie, a springer-cocker spaniel mix, and Jack, a cocker spaniel, both aged two, on the moors.

Now, as she awaits news on whether she will be given a new form of injection to combat her condition, Bond says she receives great support from fellow sufferers who share their stories on Instagram.

She said: “I have been working from home since February 2020, as I am classed as extremely clinically vulnerable at the moment, so the Instagram community has been a great support – as have my boyfriend, my family and my employer.

“Luckily, the incident on July 7 is the only time I have ever started to react when I was driving.

“I have driven since – it only took me around a week to recover and get back behind the wheel. I won’t let it knock my confidence.”

And Bond added: “I am just so glad I had the app and would recommend everyone gets it.

“If the ambulance hadn’t found me so quickly, I really don’t know what would have happened.”

The what3words app is free to download for both iOS and Android devices and works offline, making it ideal for use in areas with an unreliable data connection, such as beaches, national parks and campsites.

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