Thank you for visiting my page and if you have already donated to JDRF I  am honoured that you have chosen to help me in taking positive action in the battle against type 1 diabetes.  On Sunday 6 October I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon Completing in 2 Hours 49 minutes and 50 seconds in aid of JDRF the charity leading the  research into the cure fore for type 1 diabetes, a condition which I was diagnosed with when I was 5 years old I have been anticipating a cure for 36 years.

The training for this half marathon caused me challenges because my body has no innate ability to regulate my blood glucose levels and exercise has a massive impact on blood glucose levels both during exercise and for a few days afterwards.  I have had to take precautions including seeking the advice of Dr Ian Gallen a world leading specialist on diabetes and exercise who helped Sir Steve Redgrave to manage his diabetes before he won Olympic gold medals  in Sydney, I have sought the help of endurance running coaches, spent time exercising in physiology laboratories so that we could calculate my most efficient pace and all so that we could develop a strategy where I could minimise the risk of hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose levels) whilst running and in the crucial 48 hours after the event.  

In short for me this challenge was not really about running 13.1 miles it was about running 13.1 miles on insulin and I was able to maintain normal blood glucose levels throughout the whole event because I trained my body and my coping strategies for my diabetes.

If my story has inspired you to help me support the research to cure diabetes for the 400,000 of us in the UK that have this and the many millions world wide you can still contribute oline at justgiving.com/paulcokercardiff or better still you can join me on my next fund raising event which is a Halloween themed fancy dress walk in Bute Park on Sunday 27 October at 10:00.  The event is designed to be fun for all of the family and caters for all ages and abilities you can choose between walking 3 or 5 kilometres.

See you on the 27 October in Bute Park, Cardiff.

Paul