Thank you for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

We are walking as a family for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, who do amazing work researching the possible cures for Type 1 diabetes, the JDRF charity is very close to our heart because in November 2009 our son Jimmy was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (aged 10) this completely turned our world upside down and then just as we were getting used to all of his injections and new regime our daughter Daisy (aged 2 at the time) was diagnosed 3 months later in February 2010. There is no history of this disease in our families and we were in total shock times 2.

In the UK , there are 2.6 million people with diabetes,  but only 5% of those are children with type 1 diabetes, unfortunately for us we have 2 of them in our family, we have a son Jake, who's 15 and we are keeping our fingers crossed he will not be burdened with this terrible illness like his brother & sister.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic life threatening illness and our kids have constant battles every day in juggling the right amount of insulin and food/exercise to try and keep their blood sugar levels within a range that will not cause them complications now and in the future, we have to carbohydrate count all their food and weigh everything before they can eat it, the trouble is so many things can affect their blood sugar levels, like the weather, environment, stress, illness, growth hormones and excitement and it can become very frustrating indeed, never is one day is the same as the next and each is very challenging.

Having type 1 diabetes means constant finger prick blood tests every day, up to 6-8 times per day for Jimmy and up to 12 times for Daisy, sometimes even more! It also means they both need 4-6 injections of insulin every day to stay alive, we constantly try and avoid the risk hypoglycaemia and/or diabetic ketoacidosis, both of which could kill them, and also to minimise the future, long term risk of health complications, including blindness caused by diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal conditions & amputation of feet and legs.

We are all so proud of Jimmy & Daisy and how they deal with their diabetes struggles on a day to day basis, Daisy hates injections and crys and her little legs bruise easily from them but we are hoping to get her and Jimmy funded for insulin pumps very soon!

Insulin is not a cure, it is life support. The JDRF are so important in finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. They are at the forefront for finding this & they need donations to make this possible.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

If you would like to join us on our walk and help raise even more money, please visit  www.jdrf.org.uk/walk.

So please dig deep and donate now. Thank you x