Hello everyone,

Thank you for visiting my fundraising page I appreciate you giving it a look and reading my story.

Next April I will be running the London marathon for JDRF, this is a type 1 diabetes research charity that aim to give life changing treatments to people living with type 1 diabetes in order to improve quality of life.

As a 20 year old, I have had type 1 diabetes for almost 13 years now which has made a massive impact on my life. I know incredible research like the sort that JDRF are doing goes a long way. At aged 7, I was pricking my fingers 4-6 times a day and injecting myself with insulin 4+ times a day - counting carbohydrates and trying to do my pancreas' job whilst trying to navigate being a 7 year old girl as well. This takes a toll both mentally and physically in a way that may be invisible to many people around. Through my teenage years I struggled with not wanting to have diabetes I just wanted to be a normal kid like everyone else and not have to worry about my blood sugar all the time. But it has never stopped me doing what I want in life and achieving my goals - next up running the 26 miles round London!

Now, I have a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that sends blood sugar readings to my phone via Bluetooth and an insulin pump that can predict my glucose 30 minutes ahead to give me more or less insulin. This tries to keep my blood sugars as stable as someone with a working pancreas - I can dream :)

I am astonished how far we have come in just over 10 years and it makes me so happy that children getting diagnosed now have access to all this technology which may not make the condition go away by any stretch but helps massively. Hopefully, the technology can be made more widely available across the UK, and the world as unfortunately availability seems to be a postcode lottery.

Technology like my pump and CGM would not have been possible without charities like JDRF and people across the world donating to help make type 1 diabetes less of a burden. They do amazing work and it is an absolute honour that I have a chance to run the TCS London marathon for them.

If you would like to and feel able, I would massively appreciate you supporting me and everyone living with type 1 diabetes through donating to JDRF. Any amount would be gratefully received and any tips would be too!

Hopefully with charities like JDRF at work there will be a time where no one has to worry about type 1 diabetes.

Thank you for taking the time to read my page.

Lucy :)