Type 1 Diabetes

Last year my niece Elsie was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 4. It was a massive shock for us as a family and the symptoms came on so rapidly. Sarah and Lewis (Elsie's parents) noticed symptoms when Elsie was unwell with a virus. They noticed that she began to pass urine and drink more. Concerned, they took her to hospital where she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

What is Type 1 Diabetes ?

Type 1 Diabetes is a serious condition where your blood glucose (sugar) levels ate too high because your body can’t make a hormone called insulin. 

This happens because your body attacks the cells in your pancreas that make the insulin, meaning you can’t produce any at all. 

What causes Type 1 Diabetes?

It is still unsure what causes Type 1 Diabetes to develop. It’s got nothing to do with diet or lifestyle. But researchers and scientists around the world are working hard to find answers. 

When Elsie was diagnosed the hospital checked to see if she was in DKA. 

What is DKA?

DKA is a serious side effect of Diabetes. Diabetic ketoacidosis, also known as DKA, is when there is a severe lack of insulin in the body. This means the body can’t use sugar for energy, and starts to use fat instead. When this happens, chemicals called ketones are released which can make you very unwell. Thankfully, we caught symptoms early before this happened as for many first diagnosed this is not always the case and are diagnosed when they are already in DKA.

Following the diagnosis, Sarah and Lewis stayed in hospital alongside Elsie. Here they learnt about diabetes and the care that the family will need to provide for Elsie to manage her Diabetes. Before Elsie’s diagnosis we all had very little knowledge on the condition. There has been lots to learn such as carb counting all of Elsie’s meals and snacks and working out ratios of carbs to insulin, giving injections (which for Elsie is currently a minimum of 5 a day), checking blood glucose levels, checking for ketones in blood, checking for hypo’s and hypers and knowing how and when to treat them. A huge credit goes to Sarah and Lewis for learning this so quickly. It is so hard seeing a young child having to go through this everyday and knowing this is their future too. Through it all, Elsie has remained her happy, funny self and takes it all in her stride. We are so proud of her and the resilience she shows. 

I am running the marathon to raise awareness of Type 1 Diabetes and hope to alongside this raise a money for the charity JDRF. We hope there is a cure in the very near future.

Whilst in hospital, Elsie was given a kids sack from JDRF and inside contained lots of information for Sarah and Lewis, a Rufus the Bear for Elsie and a book they could read to her and Archie (Elsie's brother) explaining what Diabetes is in a way for them to understand. Rufus means so much to Elsie she has visited the bear factory and he now has a bed and changes of clothes. This charity holds many amazing events that support families in coming together whilst learning about latest technologies, which as being newly diagnosed is again a lot to take in.

The family are so fortunate to have a fantastic support network around them. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please donate if you are able to.

Jack 😊

From JDRF ….

400,000 people are currently living with type 1 diabetes in the UK, I want to change that.

I’m taking part in TCS London Marathon to help raise money to fund life-changing research and make a difference to the lives of people affected by type 1!

With your support and your generous donations, we can fund JDRF UK’s important work. Here are just a few examples of what your money can do...

£20 could enable 20 parents to return to work, safe in the knowledge that their child's type 1 diabetes will be carefully managed at school, thanks to JDRF's e-learning modules.

£65 could help a vital research project progress by paying for one hour of research time.

£115 could pay for one person to be screened for type 1 diabetes. Sadly people in the UK still die from un-diagnosed type 1 diabetes complications - this screening could stop this.

Thank you for your support, whatever you donate is really appreciated. Together, we can help JDRF to eradicate type 1 diabetes!