• On April 16th, I am participating in the Herts Easter Hunt - participating  in either a 64 mile cycle. COMPLETED. 

• Throughout April, I will cycle a total of 100 miles (at least) as part of a new initaitve called “Tri for Type 1." COMPLETED OVER 400KM.

• On May 21st, I am participating in the 121km cycling event called the DENS Hillbuster around Hemel Hempstead.  COMPLETED

• On May 28th, I am participating in the Ford Ride-London (100 miles around London)  COMPLETED

• On 2nd September, I will cycle in Essex. COMPLETED 

• On September 10th, I will be cycling from Brighton to London (58 miles) with Adi Arvatz! PENDING 

• This totals an amount of 336 miles for JDRF + all the training which you can see in the updates 🦾

My story with Diabetes

Reflecting from approximately 17 years of life living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), I am extremely grateful for the modern resources that are now available and accessible to me, helping me live an easier and better life. However, the reality is that these resources, which enhance the quality of my life, are not available to everyone who lives with T1D.

Even more, my story of growing up with T1D has not always been plain sailing to say the least, especially during my years of education. I was diagnosed on the 31^st October 2006, aged 5 years old and although I remember coming home from hospital, I do not remember ever thinking that my life journey would change so drastically:

How has T1D impacted my life?

In Year 1 of primary school, when I was first diagnosed with T1D, I didn’t need to take insulin at school as I was in the ‘honeymoon phase’. In Year 2, I needed to take insulin at school and my mum had to come into school every lunchtime to help administer my injections. I would often get hypos and the school told my parents that I was an unstable diabetic and that we should look elsewhere.

However, I saw my primary school days through to the very end, unconsciously not knowing any of this until I started secondary school.  Thankfully I had a very amazing medical nurse who was happy to look after me

At aged 12, whilst in Year 8 of secondary school, I started on the pump, but I was hypersensitive to even the smallest amounts of insulin and the pump settings were all wrong, causing me to face many challenges:

 I stopped going to school. With really low blood sugars reoccurring on a 24 hour basis especially during my sleep, I struggled waking up and having the energy to get out of bed to go to school.  At aged 13 years old, having only a 48% school attendance had such a huge impact on my life. 

Then socially, I lost a lot of friends. I eventually changed back from the pump, to administering insulins directly but due to my impulsivity, my blood sugars were impacted during the day as well as night (fluctuating from highs to lows). I felt very isolated and lost - not only had I not been in school a lot, I hadn’t been around much and when I was around I was no longer my former self - I ended up spending most breaks and lunches in the toilets as I felt alone.

My life simply had turned on its head. I lost my friends and felt very alone. I fell 2 years behind my studies.

 The lowest was probably at my school trip to Israel - one of the teachers joked about leaving my insulin out of the cool bag, to which, my insulin stopped working. This happened for a few days – I ended up having such high blood sugars that I stopped being able to sleep properly due to constant dehydration and as a result, I became pretty unwell. After 7 out of the 14 days I was supposed to be there, I had to leave. 

When I was 13, during the difficult prolonged period I was facing, I fundraised for JDRF, raising over £8,000 in total and being invited to Buckingham Palace.  This helped me find a new purpose later on in life, but during that time, I backed off after doing this because certain people laughed at what I had achieved, following a school assembly I delivered to 300 people in my year.

Other challenging experiences were not being allowed to consume snacks whilst having low blood sugars (hypoglycemia) in my class, as well as going to the nurse's room and the nurse leaving and locking the room whilst I have low blood sugars...

• Simply, I lost all my confidence, and I could not socialise nor work.

Thankfully, my new school was amazing and helped turn my life around at 15 years old- I can’t thank certain teachers enough for helping me so much.

Like all T1 Diabetics, I have to remember to always carry sugar and insulin with me wherever I go.  There are also the day-to-day responsibilities of living with T1D to think about too: although giving insulin every time I eat is the norm for me, I still need to think about having enough supplies of meds and snacks both at home and when I am away. 

In the face of adversity and struggles, I never give up, and raising money for T1D helps focus my thoughts on supporting an area close to my heart and one which has had a huge impact on my life - to help T1 Diabetics to live an easier, healthier and more stable life and to hopefully one day find a cure

In memory of Aunty Jenny:

Despite the challenges I have had, the one that will always remain with me on a daily basis, is losing my much loved and missed Aunty Jenny when I was 16. As a result, I aim to dedicate a portion of the rest of my life to giving back. My Aunty loved volunteering and fundraising. Aunty Jenny is a big source of inspiration and motivation for me to carry on volunteering and fundraising, amongst many other areas in life.

So kindly, please join me in fundraising, by either sharing my story or donating for such a meaningful cause that will:

• Help contribute to much needed research in Type 1 Diabetes – helping research innovative solutions towards managing the condition day to day. (Minimising the amount of time and attention spent on living with T1D will always be needed such as by creating innovative therapies, techniques and devices like Dexcom or Closed Loop Systems, to help increase the quality of life for millions, and hopefully one day, billions of Diabetics worldwide)

• Help improve the quality of life of T1 Diabetics,
  improving both their wellbeing as well as every other avenue of life – I understand this first-hand– from academics, to sport, to social and more. Since the age of 16, Dexcom has helped changed the way I lived with T1D! It increased my confidence in every aspect and minimised my anxiety levels of overthinking my sugar levels.

• Help towards manufacturing and distributing medical devices to support T1 Diabetics worldwide, reducing “Diabetic inequality” – helping me personally solve my much “survivor guilt” question – why am I able to have free access to insulin but a T1 Diabetic in another part of the world cannot afford or gain access to insulin?

• Long term, help fund research to creating a definitive solution (possibly cell and gene therapy for example) that could potentially cure T1D for all of us T1 Diabetics!