*please if you have a moment take the time to read, this is something very close to my heart* ❤️

For those of you who know me well and even those that don’t, you are probably aware of just how important my little sister is to me.
When Marie went off to university to start living the crazy student life she became very poorly, lost a lot of weight and had to go to the hospital for repeated blood tests until we discovered she had something called type 1 diabetes. I’ll admit I had no idea what this meant at the time & didn’t realise that this meant her life was about to change forever. She is now insulin dependent and needs to inject herself everyday whenever she eats anything. (This does NOT mean ‘oh she can inject herself and she’ll be fine’ - can you imagine having to rely on doing this to yourself whenever you eat something in order to stay alive....for the rest of your life?)

Often Marie has suffered at the hands of rude/ignorant people who do not understand the seriousness of it and have unfortunately made rude comments whilst she has been taking her insulin, insinuating that what she is doing is wrong in some way.

 If not treated correctly type 1 diabetes can lead to eye disease (in severe cases - blindness), Kidney disease, amputation, depression (a very common & serious issue), neuropathy, problems through pregnancy, heart disease and a much lower life expectancy. Low blood sugars can lead to fainting spells, being unaware of your surroundings and behavior can often be misinterpreted for being drunk, if a diabetics’ blood sugars go too low they can go into a coma. High blood sugars can lead to the blood becoming toxic. (Sorry for being morbid but it’s important to know the facts).

 Marie has been so brave and strong since her diagnosis and I am so incredibly proud of her and the changes she's had to make to her life. There is NO CURE for this disease. She will have diabetes for the REST OF HER LIFE. I would do absolutely anything for my sister, but the one thing I want to give her more than anything I can’t provide because diabetes is for life; which is why I’m more determined than every to raise money & awareness.

 Diabetes is so serious and not enough people are aware of what it means for people who live with it every day.
Please please donate, anything at all will make a difference. I would love for one day my sister and other diabetics to not to have to worry about what they're eating or checking their blood sugars or constantly having to make visits to the doctors and pharmacy; just to live a normal life. Diabetes UK is doing everything they can through their research to look into pancreas transplants and other ways of curing this awful disease.