2018 has certainly been a year of many ups and downs, you may have noticed from September there hasn't been as much going on, unfortunately my Dad was taken seriously ill and has been in hospital (and still remains there as I write this) so we haven't been able to do as much as I would normally. Thanks to all the people who follow the site for the support over the last few months!

Coeliac Sanctuary has been as popular as ever though with over half a million visitors over the year checking out our where to eat guide, recipes, blogs and our shop. Despite Google changing their algorithms and causing chaos for the last few months we are thrilled to know so many still love the website.

There have been so big accomplishments this year, we had a site redevelopment which saw some major changes to all the website, we attending the Allergy and Free From Show in London as exhibitors, something we had hoped to do since setting up the shop in January 2017 and our online shop grew much more than we could have hoped for!

Not only that but we worked with some fabulous companies on blogs and recipes over the year including Juvela, Fairfield Farm, Andrew James, Popcorn Shed, Spicentice, Wildcraft Bakery and Bake With A Legend and we hope 2019 brings us more fab partnerships with other brands!

What were your favourite things on the website this year? Here are the most popular blogs and recipes from this year.

Top Blogs
Gluten Free Chocolate and Sweets
This has been an extremely popular blog for a few years and this year remains that way despite us doing a more updated one! Amazingly this blog got a staggering 75k views this year.
Gluten Free Crisps
Another old blog but it still remains popular with those who love a good savoury snack!
Fresh Gluten Free Bread in 230 Morrisons Stores
Early this year Morrisons released fresh gluten free bread in 230 of their stores (it was later removed from a lot) and a lot of you were desperate to find if your local did it.
Gluten Free Easter Eggs 2018
So much love for chocolate! When Easter came round our list of gluten free Easter Eggs was a definite hit.
22 Gluten Free Afternoon Teas In The UK
Everyone loves gorging on an Afternoon tea, we listed 22 places that did them.

Top Recipes
Yorkshire Puddings
Certainly a firm favourite is our Yorkshire Pudding recipe, they have never failed us yet.
Non Alcoholic Peppercorn Sauce
A recipe we never expected to be as popular as it is, this one still remains a favourite.
Chocolate Crunch
A popular cakey treat in school, whether you call it chocolate crunch or a chocolate brick.
KFC Style Chicken
Fab alternative to gluten filled KFC, lovely spiced chicken.
Vanilla Custard Slices
Gluten and dairy free custard slices which are super easy to make.

As well as our blogs and recipes our where to eat guide which is entirely populated by fellow Coeliacs suggesting places, had nearly 150k visitors over the year and that doesn't include the thousand or so people that use our Coeliac Sanctuary On The Go App.

Based off our analytics software the top 10 places that were searched for or looked at the most often on our where to eat guide on the website this year were as follows:-

Liverpool, Merseyside
York, North Yorkshire
Cardiff
Bristol
Belfast
Glasgow
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
St Ives, Cornwall
Bournemouth, Dorset
Scarborough, North Yorkshire

Such a varied selection of cities and popular UK holiday destinations!

Our online shop has grown a lot this year, our travel cards have increased to now have 50 languages over 25 cards, we changed our Multi Allergen cards to make them include other Dietary Needs as well, we added a new wristband to our stock list and took over stock from Gluten Freak Abroad (Grumpy, Glam and Gluten Free products) who could no longer run her blog.

Not only did we increase our range online but we also attended many Coeliac UK Local Group food fairs all over the country including Preston, Bristol and Lincoln as well as exhibiting at the Allergy and Free From Show in London. We hope to continue attending the Coeliac UK food fairs in 2019.

If you are interested to know, these were our best selling products in the shop during 2018.

Coeliac Wristbands (particularly Adult and Junior sizes)
Simple blue silicone wristband saying you have Coeliac, ideal for awareness.
Grumpy, Glam and Gluten Free Pens
These have been so unbelievably popular, especially at food fairs, who'd have thought a simple, light humoured pen would be so popular.
Spanish/Italian Travel Cards
As always Spanish/Italian travel cards remain our most popular!
Stickers (especially Mixed colour packs)
Our stickers are so popular as they are water and freezer proof so can label anything, mixed colour packs always fly out the door.
Greek/Turkish Travel Cards
Second most popular travel card is always a toss up between Greek/Turkish and French/German, this time Greek/Turkish won out.

To everyone who has taken a look at our website or app, our 13k Facebook followers, 3k Twitter followers and 6k Instagram followers and everyone else, however you found our website, thank you. Thank you for all the support, the emails expressing your love and gratitude for the website and for everything else in between. Here's to another year of growth and and no gluten accidents!