Hi, my name is Robin, I am 14 years old and I have Type 1 Diabetes. I have something called ‘poor hypo awareness’, this means that I rarely recognise the symptoms of an oncoming episode of hypo-glycaemia or ‘low blood sugars’. This essentially means that before I know what is happening or I am able do anything about it, I become unable to look after myself, often passing out, sometimes this can also lead to temporary loss of vision and speech. This can be very serious if I am not with someone who knows how to care for me, as in these situations I cannot look after myself. This can happen as often as several times a day, and the resulting recovery isn’t very nice either as I can be left feeling very confused, disorientated, weak and emotional.

As you can imagine, this has a profound effect on my day-to-day life as I have very little freedom or independence. I always have to be with someone who knows how to look after me and is willing to be responsible for my welfare, with the obvious exception of my parents, this is a serious obligation and there is understandably not a long list of volunteers prepared to do this.

I also have to attend lots of medical appointments which address my diabetes and other related conditions. This, combined with the frequent episodes of hypo-glycaemia and hyper-glycaemia, both of which can lead to a parent having to come to school to sort me out, means I miss a great deal of school. This is having a knock-on effect on my grades and is a disruption for my parents one of whom works shifts and the other is studying to become a teacher.

I frequently feel resentful towards my condition, which I have had since I was 2 years old and I often feel like I am missing out on ‘life’.

But, there is a device called the Dexcom G5 CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor), that will allow me to have more freedom. It will let me go out with friends and will also mean that I can safely go to college, university, drive a car or even go travelling, none of which I could do without the device. The Continuous Glucose Monitor is a sensor attached to my body that transmits continuous blood glucose readings to my mobile phone. This has three life changing benefits:

1. It allows me to know what my blood sugars are doing without the need for a painful finger prick test,

2. It provides my phone with information which allows alarms to be set to inform me when my blood is rising or falling to dangerous levels, enabling me to take preventative action before problems arise, and

3. It allows my parents to monitor my blood sugars from their mobile phones, providing them with the assurance that I am safe.

However, Cornwall Primary Healthcare Trust are not currently funding this treatment, which is disappointing as other trusts are. At the moment I have a trial pack which was funded by a very generous friend of my family. It is very early days but so far I have been able to spend more time with my friends and have even been able to walk the dog by myself, something which I know doesn’t sound like a big step, but I have never been able to do these things before.

Due to my Mum having to work around my condition and my Dad being a full time student and my having two younger brothers, they are struggling to find the money to fund these sensors by themselves. So, I thought that I would try to help.

My parents have helped me to set up this Crowd Funding page to try and raise funds and awareness. The funds will hopefully fund my Dexcom G5 CGM until my family, medical team, youth worker and school can put together a business case to the local NHS Trust and, hopefully, convince them that this would improve so many areas of my life and well-being to justify their investing in it for me.

If you are able to support me financially, thank you very much. If not, please share my page and support all of the people with Type 1 Diabetes, who might benefit from wider knowledge of their condition and the treatments available.

Fanks

Robin x