Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

We are raising money for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to help find a cure for Type One Diabetes. 

In August 2015, when she was only five years old, my eldest daughter Emilia was diagnosed with this chronic, lifelong condition. She was admitted to hospital on the verge of DKA and extremely poorly. She spent the next nine days adjusting to the realisation that her life would never be the same again. Her poor little fingers were like pin cushions from all the blood testing, and she was skeletally thin. We could easily have lost her and the first few horrendous days as we battled to get her blood sugar under control are days that will stay with me for the rest of my life. 

With Type One Diabetes, the pancreas does not make the insulin which the body needs to essentially unlock cells to allow energy from glucose in the bloodstream in. In effect, the body then starts wasting away and the glucose builds up in the blood stream to dangerous levels. Too high blood sugar and Emilia can end up in DKA and a coma. Too low blood sugar (because she has taken too much insulin) can bring on a hypoglycaemic episode, loss of consciousness and can even be fatal. Not to mention the longer term effects of bad glucose management such as loss of digits/limbs, loss of vision and heart issues. 

We walk a constant tightrope between "hyper" and "hypo" and life is a juggle between moving targets such as growth spurts, exercise, illness, and the type and quantity of food she is eating (all of which affect blood sugar levels in differing ways). The condition has affected her mood, a lot of her hair fell out, she has struggled with terrible anxiety, frequent vomiting attacks, migrainous headaches and distorted vision, as well as feeling so weak at times that she has collapsed and been unable to walk for days at time. 

Emilia has been fortunate enough to receive funding for an insulin pump, which sits on a little belt around her waist and now keeps her alive. Almost five years in, and we are able to let her enjoy more or less a normal life. But the pump is not without its flaws and it can and does go wrong at times. 

And this is why we have chosen to raise money for JDRF by getting off the couch and RUNNING, yes folks, RUNNING over 13 miles (hopefully without stopping :-))...…..in the Great North Run on 8th September.