I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on June 3rd 2016 - a day I distinctively remember because it was 3 days before my first A-Level exam!

Before my diagnosis - I knew little to nothing about Type 1 Diabetes and I find that this is still the case with pretty much anyone I talk to about my condition. In all complete honesty, the first thing that comes to people's minds when they think of diabetes is "Don't you have to be overweight/unhealthy to get that?" or "So did you just eat too much sugar?". Whilst these statements can be true for some type 2 diabetics - they couldn't be further from the truth of Type 1 Diabetes.

Without getting into too much technical info (mostly because I don't know that much myself) - Type 1 Diabetes is a condition where your immune system self-destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. There is no known cause. Yes, it can be genetic. But genetic diagnosis is only around 10% of the people who have Type 1 Diabetes. That means 90% of Type 1 Diabetics (including myself) were diagnosed for no known reason.

Insulin is needed in everyone's bodies in order to regulate your blood-sugar levels, which help your body function everyday. If your pancreas stops producing insulin, your blood sugar becomes too high (hyperglycemia) and if it is left this way for a prolonged period of time - it can cause life-changing impacts including sight loss, amputated limbs, kidney failure and eventually strokes/death. So what I am trying to say is, IT'S SERIOUS!

Luckily, I live in an area of the world where insulin is easily available to me. So currently, I inject myself with insulin at least 4 times a day - which is a minimum of 1460 injections a year... and lets hope I'll live for another 60 years.. that'll be another 87,600 injections for the rest of my life!

So whilst, that all sounds bad.. you may think ah well, at least there is an easy fix to your problem. Blood sugar goes too high... inject insulin - problem solved? Nope. So I currently inject insulin with a 1:10 ratio to total carbohydrate (incl. starch & sugar). So for every 10 grams of carbs I eat, I inject 1 unit of insulin - but this ratio is different for every single person. Oh and did I mention this ratio changes based on what type of carbs I eat, whether they are high in fibre or not, how much exercise I have done that day, where I am in my menstrual cycle, alcohol, the TEMPERATURE outside, hormones, stress... and just about anything else that happens in my body?? So let's just say insulin is not an exact science and definitely not an easy solution.

My love/hate relationship with insulin continues with HYPOglycemia - when you experience low blood sugar. So as I've written above, insulin injections are not an easy thing to keep control of and so often type 1 diabetics will experience low blood sugar. Low blood sugar has a lot of short term impacts including, shaking, sweating, tingling sensations, feeling anxious, heart palpitations, feeling confused/acting drunk, headache... the symptoms are different for everyone. However, I experience all of these symptoms very regularly. Hypoglycemia is more serious in the short term as If I don't treat a 'Hypo' when my blood sugar goes low with some fast-acting sugar (Orange juice, lucozade, gluco-tabs etc), I would go unconscious/have a seizure and could potentially slip into a coma/death. So yeah, again.. IT'S SERIOUS!

Another common misconception is that the resolution to Type 1 Diabetes is to just 'not eat carbs or sugar'. Besides from the fact that every person still needs carbs for energy, a type 1 diabetic who didn't eat any carbs would be at a serious risk of Hypoglycemia all the time! So yes, whilst a lower consumption of carbs can help to make diabetes more stable, simply cutting out carbs and sugar completely is not an option.

Now onto the important guys - JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). Type 1 Diabetes is also commonly referred to as Juvenile Diabetes as it is very common in young children. JDRF are dedicated to life-saving research which will hopefully one day find the cure for Type 1 Diabetes and eradicate it completely! They have already made significant progress towards this goal through researching how to get Type 1 diabetics to recreate their own insulin cells and how to stop the immune system from destroying them. More recently, JDRF have been researching the use of an artificial pancreas and have shown how effective it can be in stabilising blood sugar levels - it is research like this that will encourage the government to fund treatment like this for hopefully all Type 1 Diabetics in the UK. There is plenty of information about how JDRF use donations to fund their many research projects on their website:

https://jdrf.org.uk/

SO - how am I going to help JDRF? Well I have always wanted to run a marathon, so I've decided to not let my Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis deter me from doing this and instead use it to fuel my motivation! As I have previously mentioned, exercise and type 1 diabetes is not an easy relationship. However, I still love to run, go to the gym and play netball as much as I can - so I am confident a marathon is well within my reach. Not only will I have to consistently check my blood sugar throughout the marathon but I will also have to continously intake sugar to keep my body stable as my muscles do all the hard work! In no way is this going to be an easy task, but it is absolutely worth it to raise money for such a worthwhile charity that directly impacts over 400,000 Type 1 Diabetics in the UK alone.

I plan to keep everyone updated with my marathon training & diabetes treatment throughout via my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Type1Marathon/

If you can spare any donations to my cause, I would be extremely grateful.