Anglia Ruskin University are hosting a Festival for the Senses at their campus in Chelmsford, Essex, on 1st October 2016.  Fifth Sense are participating in this free event and will be running some activities to highlight how important the senses of smell and taste are to our lives.  We’ll be joined by fragrance educator Eliza Douglas who’ll be bringing along some smells chosen to tap into the olfactive memories of members of the public who are their on the day.

This will also be an opportunity for us to educate guests on the impact that smell and taste disorders can have on people’s lives and talk about the work we are doing around helping people who have suffered olfactory loss train their senses of smell and taste.

The event is completely free and all are welcome.  We’d be delighted to meet any Fifth Sense members who live in the area.  If you’d like to attend then visit the Anglia Ruskin website for further details of what’s happening on the day and directions. We hope to see you there!

27^th February was Anosmia Awareness Day, and this year we highlighted it by running an awareness-raising campaign entitled ‘Long Lost Smell’. The campaign sought to highlight the evocative connection between smell and memory alongside the impact of smell loss.

We asked people with a sense of smell to think what it might be like to have it taken away from them, and tell us which smell they would miss the most, sharing this on twitter and Facebook using hashtag #LongLostSmell. We also asked people affected by olfactory disorders which smell they miss more than any other, or the one thing they wish they could smell. This is part of our ongoing efforts to get people talking about the sense of smell.

We’ve shared the responses on our Storify page at http://www.storify.com/fifthsenseuk/long-lost-smell and the results make for fascinating reading. We received tweets from Fifth Sense members and also many from people involved in the worlds of food, wine and fragrance. A number of fragrance organisations and writers also got involved and featured articles on their websites.

On 27^th February itself, Fifth Sense’s Duncan Boak and Chrissi Kelly attended the Body and City symposium organised by urban sociologist Dr Alex Rhys-Taylor. Duncan gave a talk on how the sense of smell forms an important connection to our environment, particularly in terms of our memory. Chrissi had brought along some jars of Long Lost Smells that she asked guests to sniff and try to recognise…boot polish was recognisable to most people, but those under 30 struggled to recognise the moth balls!

We also asked people who participated in the #LongLostSmell campaign to make a donation which will go towards starting a dedicated fund to support future research into smell and taste disorders. We’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who made a donation.

Fifth Sense Member Claire Mulligan and her colleagues at Oakwood Day Service in Nuneaton (pictured left) have been wearing noseclips and red on Anosmia Awareness Day for the past few years.  Claire told us: ‘Knowing there is a charity out there that supports people with similar conditions and are striving to develop more awareness and research around this is fantastic and reassuring, it gives people the opportunity to share their stories and frustrations and feel more accepted.’

Following on from Anosmia Awareness Day itself, Fifth Sense’s Chrissi Kelly (third from right in the photo) appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Breakfast on 14th March, talking about her experience of losing her sense of smell. Chrissi also talked about the work she is doing around smell training, which she believes is responsible for restoring some of her olfactory ability. Chrissi’s appearance clearly struck a chord with listeners; we’ve had emails from people asking about smell training and telling us it was the first time they’d heard there is a name for their condition.

Over in the US, the Monell Chemical Senses Center were also running some activities as part of Anosmia Awareness Day, including running a seminar on the causes and treatments for anosmia to physicians in the Philadelphia Area. For more information on their activities visit their website using the link below.

We’d like to say a huge thanks to the following people and organisations for their support of Anosmia Awareness Day and Fifth Sense:

FlavorActiV
http://www.flavoractiv.com/2015/02/longlostsmell-anosmia-sensory/

FlavorActiV is the world’s only provider of pharmaceutical quality produced and controlled flavourstandards for use in beer, wine, cider, carbonated soft drinks, waters and many other beverages to help train professional sensory panels.

The Perfume Society 
http://perfumesociety.org
The Perfume Society produced a special report on our
#LongLostSmell activity which first appeared in their newsletter, The Scented Letter. This appears eight times a year online as a VIP Subscriber benefit to those who belong to The Perfume Society.

Click here to view The Perfume Society’s #LongLostSmell article

Basenotes
An independent online guide to perfume.
http://www.basenotes.net

Get Lippie
Get Lippie, aka Louise Woollam, is a perfume and beauty blogger and Fifth Sense member who has written extensively about her experience of developing anosmia and parosmia.
http://getlippie.blogspot.co.uk

Dr Alex Rhys-Taylor at Goldsmiths College
Alex Rhys-Taylor is a sociologist with a specialism in urban sociology, not to mention a great interest in the sense of smell.
http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/staff/rhys-taylor/

Monell Chemical Senses Center
The Monell Center is the world’s only independent, non-profit scientific institute dedicated to interdisciplinary basic research on the senses of taste and smell.
http://www.monell.org/news/monell_notices/anosmia_awareness_day_2015

Elena Vosnaki at The Perfume Shrine
An award-winning independent online publication focusing on perfumery.
http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-case-for-anosmia.html

Volatile Fiction
The fragrance blog of Finnish perfumer Pia Long.
https://volatilefiction.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/long-lost-smell/

And a special thanks to Daniel Schein who first started Anosmia Awareness Day and without whom, of course, none of this would have happened.  Visit the Facebook page he runs at https://www.facebook.com/AnosmiaAwarenessDay

We’re very pleased to report on the success of the second annual Fifth Sense conference, which represented a significant milestone in our efforts to provide support and advice to our community of people affected by smell and taste disorders.

Mr Sunkaraneni explains the anatomy of the human olfactory system

Over 100 Fifth Sense members joined delegates from the academic community and fragrance industry at the University of Surrey in Guildford for a rich, thought-provoking, and at times quite emotional day.

The conference was delivered in partnership with the University of Surrey and Royal Surrey County Hospital, and supported by FlavorActiV Ltd, the world’s only provider of pharmaceutical quality flavour standards used across the beverage industry for sensory training and validation.

We were able to draw on the expertise within our own organisation and beyond in designing and delivering the programme, which was focused on providing information, support and advice to Fifth Sense members, and anyone with an interest in the senses of smell, taste and related disorders. We also designed the conference to be a platform for taking aspects of our work forwards, whether identifying areas for future research or ways in which we can better support our members.

Guests discuss the quality of life impact of smell disorders

During the opening session, after a welcome from Fifth Sense Founder Duncan Boak and Prof Roberto La Ragione of the University of Surrey, Consultant ENT Surgeon Mr Sankalp Sunkaraneni provided an overview of the function and importance of the senses of smell and taste. Mr Sunkaraneni runs a sinus clinic at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. He was followed by Dr Augusto Coppi from the University’s Veterinary School, who compared smell and taste in the human and animal kingdoms, and talked about how research being undertaken into the sense of smell in animals may enable us to better understand the human olfactory system. And then it was on to the morning workshops…

The workshops provided a mixture of information, practical advice and support, and group learning. ENT Consultant Surgeons Miss Lisha McClelland, Mr Carl Philpott and Mr Sankalp Sunkaraneni contributed their expertise to a number of workshops on the clinical aspects of smell and taste disorders, including Q&A sessions where guests had the opportunity to ask the clinicians questions on the issues that matter to them.

Fifth Sense members Tom Laughton and Charlotte Self along with Katy Kennedy from the University of Surrey delivered workshops that explored the quality of life consequences of sensory loss, with Charlotte and Katy focusing on the impact that olfactory disorders can have on relationships.

Victoria Moore and FlavorActiV’s Liam Singleton prepare for the ‘Taste Vs Flavour’ workshop

Finding ways of improving the eating experience for people affected by smell and taste disorders was also on the agenda. The Daily Telegraph’s Wine Editor Victoria Moore teamed up with Dr Boris Gadzov, Director of Global Sensory Management, from sensory experts FlavorActiV to explore the differences between taste and flavour, and how this knowledge can be beneficial to people who have a problem with their sense of smell. Meanwhile, Fifth Sense’s Duncan Boak talked about using the other senses to compensate for his loss of smell when cooking, with the University of Surrey’s Dr Michelle Gibbs providing nutritional advice.

Fifth Sense 2014 Conference Programme Further details on the workshops can be found in the conference programme, here.

The lunch menu was designed by Duncan Boak (who runs a food website at              www.experienceeating.co.uk) and the University’s Head Chef John Walter, who handled the challenge of delivering an enjoyable lunch for smell and taste disorder sufferers with aplomb. John and his team delivered an array of dishes that made full use of texture, strong tastes and flavours, and some spices to warm things up a bit. The meal was rounded off with an elderflower and damson gin sorbet, for which John had foraged the fruit himself. You can view the menu here.

Si McCabe (left) talks taste with some of the guests

Our guests even had the opportunity to try some delicious beers alongside their curry, courtesy of Si McCabe, Brewer at the One Mile End brewery in Whitechapel, London.  Si brought with him some beers that had strong basic tastes, such as his Salvation Pale Ale (bitter) and Snakecharmer IPA (rich caramel sweetness).

Following the afternoon workshops, Consultant ENT Surgeon Mr Carl Philpott gave a talk on current research activity in relation to smell and taste-related disorders in the UK, and how this might develop in future with the support of Fifth Sense and its members.

The Future of Fifth Sense, with David Hunt and Duncan Boak

The final session, entitled ‘Fifth Sense: The Future’ was run by Fifth Sense’s Duncan Boak and David Hunt, and was an opportunity for everyone present to put forward their ideas for how Fifth Sense develop its work going forwards. This was an incredibly positive and inspiring way in which to end the conference, with a wealth of contributions, suggestions, and offers of assistance from guests. Fifth Sense’s Barbara Brady acted as scribe and did an excellent job of keeping pace with the wealth of feedback and ideas.

Fifth Sense’s Chrissi Kelly leads the Smell Training workshop

We very much feel that the conference fulfilled our objectives, firstly in providing information and support to our members, and making them feel part of a community that understands and cares. We also feel that the other key objective, for the conference to be a platform for our work in future, was also met. We are already talking to staff at the University of Surrey about potential areas of research, whilst the feedback from members given on the day and since is of course going to be taken into account as we continue to plan our work for 2015 and beyond. One thing we can certainly say is that Fifth Sense’s 2015 conference will be bigger and better again, and that will be in no small part to the contributions of everyone who was a part this year’s very special event.

Some quotes from guests who attended the conference:

‘It has been great to meet others with similar conditions and experiences – a first for me and very encouraging.’ Anne Hesketh, Fifth Sense member

‘We need to continue to raise the profile of the vital senses of taste and smell and Fifth Sense is brilliant for this…this is pioneering work. Thank you so much.’ Elizabeth Draper, Fifth Sense member

‘Being a Fifth Sense Member means I’m part of a growing group of people who are going to do something about providing a voice for the nose.’ Mark Griffiths, Fifth Sense member (read Mark’s blog post here in which he talks more about developing a vocabulary for olfactory disorders)

‘FlavorActiV are proud supporters of Fifth Sense. As a company dedicated to sensory training in the beverage industry, we are acutely aware of the challenges of improving tasting ability. We also appreciate, and to some extent understand, how demoralising and debilitating the loss of either sense can be to an individual. Therefore to support and attend this conference is important to our organisation so that we can listen and learn from Fifth Sense members about their experiences. By gathering and utilising this vital information, and combining it with our own considerable sensory experience in the beverage industry, we can look to see how we can support Fifth Sense through flavour production, sensory training, research initiatives, harnessing our extensive customer base, and financing and fundraising activities. This was an exciting day for FlavorActiV, and we look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration with Fifth Sense.’ Richard Boughton, FlavorActiV CEO

We would like to say a huge thank you to the following people, who helped make the 2015 Fifth Sense Conference such a special occasion…

Julia Gerhold, John Walter, Rhian Jones and the rest of the team at the University of Surrey, the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Dr Boris Gadzov, Liam Singleton, Richard Boughton and the rest of the FlavorActiV team, Duncan Boak, Barbara Brady, Dr Augusto Coppi, Dr Michelle Gibbs, David Hunt, Katy Kennedy, Chrissi Kelly, Tom Laughton, Prof Roberto La Ragione, Si McCabe, Miss Lisha McClelland, Victoria Moore, Sarah Page, Mr Carl Philpott, Sylvia Popham, Alex Reilly, Charlotte Self, Mr San Sunkaraneni….and, of course, to all the guests who joined us on the day.

All photographs courtesy of Sarah Kathleen Page: http://www.sarahkathleenpage.co.uk