The gorgeous little girl in the picture is my 4 year old Isabel, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 23 months, she has to have insulin every day for the rest of her life, she used to have injections which were a real pain for her and me but now she has an insulin pump which has really helped us get her blood sugars under control and it lets her have the occaisional treat so she feels just like all her non diabetic friends. Its only through research that insulin pumps have been develped enabling kids and adults to live a slightly less structured life, believe me it is a nightmare trying to get a stubborn toddler to eat when she's just not hungry, but with injections once she'd had the insulin she had to eat or we'd be dealing with a monster of a hypo an hour or so later, the development of the pump lets her eat when she wants and within reason what she wants, it's a pretty pink colour and she loves it.

BUT at least once or twice a week she'll come sit with me and start giving really big sighs, I know whats coming but of course I still ask "whats wrong darling?" and she'll reply " I wish I wasn't diabetic" it makes me want to cry, a 4 year old shouldn't have to feel things like that, thats why the research jdrf are doing into a cure for type 1 diabetes is so important, when diabetes is mentioned i the news so often its type 2 and people often mistakenly think they are the same disease, they are not, type 1 is an auto immune disease, we have no real idea why people get it but it is not because a child eats too many sweets or is overweight, Isabel has always had a really healthy diet.

Type 2 diabetes can in large part be avoided with a good diet and regular excersise, type 1 can't but they can both cause devastating long term health problems if not controlled properly, I don;t want my little girl to go blind, get heart problems or circulatory problems so I do everything I can to make sure her blood sugars remain stable, most of the time we are winning, but a cure would be the best thing in the world for us and for hundreds of thousands of children and adults with this disease worldwide.

OOOhh i've gone on a bit, all thats left to say is that we will all as a family be doing the bristol walk to cure diabetes on 12th september this year, we need sponsors PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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