Dr Sophie Farooque was the first National Trainee in Allergy in the UK and completed her specialist training at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in 2006. At the end of her training, Sophie was awarded a Clinical Research Fellowship by the Medical Research Council to read for a PhD at King’s College London. Sophie started work as Clinical Lead in Adult Allergy at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (St Mary's) in May 2010. St Mary’s is the oldest allergy clinic in the UK and is famous worldwide as the home of allergen immunotherapy for hay fever.

When Sophie is seeing patients in the allergy clinic, the ability to transform lives often in the space of a single visit is one of the reasons why Sophie loves her work. A lack of information helps no one. She has seen patients who have suffered unnecessarily with out of control allergies for years and others who have thought they are allergic to something, only to find that they are not. 

Sophie believes in trying to make medicine accessible to the public and has appeared multiple times on national television. Sophie speaks publically about allergies and has been quoted in the Times, Guardian, Daily Mail and Daily Express amongst others. She has also been listed as an Expert Panelist in Waitrose Health Magazine and has spoken about allergies on the Liz Earle podcast. Sophie is active on social media and has over 10,000 followers on Twitter. She want her patients and their families to feel empowered about what to do and when to seek help.

In March 2022, Sophie published her first book called Understanding Allergy (Penguin Random House) aimed at both medical professionals and those suffering with allergy. It reached number 30 in the Amazon best sellers chart. She believes that part of helping patients involves educating healthcare professionals about allergy and its impact. Sophie regularly teaches other doctors about allergies and is an active member of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and works on several of their committees, in order to shape the future of allergy in the UK.    

Areas of expertise

• Skin prick testing
• Intradermal testing
• Drug challenges
• Drug allergy (including antibiotic allergy, anaesthetic allergy, allergy to painkillers)
• Hay fever and allergic rhinitis
• Food allergy and anaphylaxis

Recent and current appointments

• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; Consultant Allergy

Publications, lectures and teachings

• Dr Farooque lectures nationally and internationally
• Understanding Allergy by Dr Sophie Farooque; released by Penguin in March 2022

Society memberships

• BSACI (British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology)
• EAACI (European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology)