Shreaya Madireddy is a senior in high school near Dayton, Ohio. She has asthma, eczema, and animal and environmental allergies. She is also allergic to all nuts, peanuts, coconut, beans, and soy.

But Shreaya doesn’t let her food allergies and asthma hold her back. She coaches youth volleyball and volunteers at local nursing homes through the Key Club. She volunteers with Be the Match to help set up bone marrow registration drives. And she uses her voice to make a difference for people with food allergies and asthma as a Community Ambassador for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) and Kids With Food Allergies (KFA).

AAFA Community Ambassadors are people with asthma and allergies and caregivers who support our mission to save lives and reduce the burden of these conditions. Each Community Ambassador draws on their personal experiences to help AAFA in various ways, such as by spreading awareness, advocating, participating in our online communities, raising funds, and more.

This year, Shreaya shared her story to help advance laws and research to help improve the lives of people with allergies and asthma.

Her friends and family are a big help with managing her food allergies and asthma.

“My friends and family help me by being considerate about their pets and the food they eat when I am around them,” shared Shreaya.

Soon Shreaya will be making new friends as she heads off to college. She is applying to college with an eye on microbiology and biomedical science programs. She wants to become an allergist/immunologist.

She has had an interest in helping people with food allergies and asthma since a young age. She has some great role models to look up to. Her mother, Naga Madireddy, is an internal medicine doctor, and her sister is currently in medical school.

Once Shreaya receives college acceptance letters, she plans to rank the colleges to help make a decision. One factor will be the school’s dining program and how prepared they are to manage her food allergies.

“Some cafeterias are getting very good at making lots of good options,” shared Shreaya. “I’m going to look into that after I get accepted.”

While she doesn’t know where she is going to college yet, she does know her inhaler, nebulizer, and epinephrine auto-injectors will be going with her. And we are sure Shreaya will continue to raise awareness about food allergies and asthma on her college campus.

KFA is the food allergy division of AAFA.