When Ella Martin, 25, discovered she was pregnant in November, only one thought kept her from complete happiness: hay fever. Every summer since her early childhood Martin had suffered the furiously itchy eyes, itchy throat and uncontrollable sneezing that characterise the seasonal allergy. Usually, she’d dose up on antihistamines to control the symptoms. This year, because of her pregnancy, that wouldn’t be an option. “I just thought, Oh God,” she says. “Being pregnant for the first time will be hard enough. But being pregnant, and hay fever?”

Hay fever, allergic rhinitis, is an allergy to seasonal airborne pollens, in which contact with those pollens causes an overreaction by the immune system. According to the NHS, it affects about 20 per cent of people in the UK, with May to September being the peak hay fever season. For some, the condition is only a mild irritant; Martin’s story, though, will be familiar to anyone affected severely.

This year, however, her condition has been alleviated by a drug-free and organic treatment called HayMax. The creation of an entrepreneur with no medical training, it’s fast gaining a reputation among those who habitually sneeze their way through summer. “I’ve had hay fever as far back as I can remember,” says Martin. “As a girl I spent a lot of summer afternoons lying down with cucumbers over my eyes feeling very sorry for myself. Even the skin on my face becomes itchy and red. It’s not attractive; I look like a trauma victim.”

In adulthood, Martin had controlled the allergy with conventional medicines: Piriton (chlorphenamine), an over-the-counter antihistamine tablet, and a cortico-steroid nasal spray prescribed by her GP. So when a friendly midwife told Martin in November that pregnancy would prevent her taking those medicines this summer, she worried. Antihistamine makers advise against using them while pregnant, not because there is evidence of harm, but because of insufficient evidence that they are safe.

“May and early June were horrendous,” says Martin. “The constant itchiness was infuriating and meant that I couldn’t sleep; that’s hard enough when you’re up every two hours to go to the loo. So I was exhausted. I blew my nose so often that I got headaches. Hay fever was taking the joy out of my pregnancy.”

But when she visited a local heathfood shop in early June, it was for her boyfriend, Jason, also a hay fever sufferer. “Being pregnant, I assumed there would be no safe treatment for me,” she says. Staff recommended HayMax for Jason. “It came in a small pot, like a lip balm,” says Martin. Users of HayMax are instructed to rub a small amount of the viscous substance under the nose.

“That evening, my hay fever was really bad,” she says. “We read the HayMax label, and it said ‘Safe for pregnant women’. So when Jason applied some, I did, too. Straight away I stopped sneezing. I was amazed. In the days that followed, I used it first thing in the morning, and then whenever I felt a bout of sneezing coming. That has calmed my symptoms dramatically. Now I’m not sneezing all day, so I don’t get the runny nose or itchy throat. My eyes and face are less itchy, too. That means I can sleep.”

It seems miraculous. So what is going on? The treatment is the creation of Max Wiseberg, a former sales executive amd a hay fever sufferer. The way HayMax works is simple, he says. When applied under the nose the substance acts as a barrier and prevents inhalation of pollen through the nose. “Pollen sticks to the HayMax, instead of being inhaled,” he says. “Put simply: no pollen, no hay fever. Yes, pollen will still enter the body, through the mouth, for example. But if you can reduce the amount that enters, you can reduce symptoms dramatically.”

Wiseberg says that one pot of HayMax, which he makes on his farm near Bedford, will comfortably last the average sufferer through summer. He admits he has no medical training, and did not consult doctors during the development of his treatment, which is a combination of oils and beeswax. “I got the idea in 2002, after smearing Vaseline under my nose for my hay fever,” he says. “It provided a little relief, and felt horrible. So I worked to find a more effective, more pleasant pollen blocker. HayMax is the result; it’s more effective and nicer to use than Vaseline.”

Lindsey McManus, of Allergy UK, Britain’s leading allergy charity, says: “The principle behind HayMax is legitimate. Simple barrier methods can help to reduce hay fever symptoms. Wrap-around shades, for example, can help to keep pollen out of eyes. We’ve been telling people to smear Vaseline under the nose for years. Antihistamines and steroid nasal sprays are the most effective treatments but HayMax is safe to use in conjunction with those medicines.”

There have been no clinical trials of HayMax, but since its launch in 2004, Wiseberg has seen his work pay dividends. Last year HayMax won Best Organic Product at the Organic Trade Show. Approval from the Soil Association, the “stamp” of organic products, is pending. Now, it’s stocked at Superdrug and Waitrose.

“I’ve never claimed that HayMax works for everyone,” says Wiseberg. “No hay fever treatment does. We’ve sold 100,000 pots now, and I’ve heard of 13 people who said it did them no good and hundreds who said that it worked.”

As for Ella Martin, she is in no doubt into which camp she falls. “It has changed my pregnancy,” she says. “I’ll definitely keep using it after the birth. Last week it was my birthday. I put on HayMax and we went to a restaurant for dinner. I was able to sit outside in the evening sun. It was perfect, and it would have been unthinkable if it wasn’t for this treatment.”

Explore Health

• Expert Advice

• Health Features

• Mental Health

• Alternative Medicine

• Child Health

• Health Club