At the end of 2020, our worst nightmare hit - without warning, without even realising, our daughter Violet, aged 18 months old, became very suddenly extremely ill.

Rushed into hospital with her (by myself as it was Covid) I experienced a whirlwind 12 hour night, the unthinkable reality of almost losing her, holding her tight hooked up to all the drips. I'll never forget the actions of the doctors and nurses that night; the one who came over to me around 4am, looked into my eyes, and in the most supportive way possible, said to me "you do know... there isn't a cure, don't you?"

There is no cure, and we are desperate to do everything we can to get that breakthrough. A lot of people don't realise that living with Type 1 means making upwards of 100 decisions every day to do what the body can no longer do itself, through no fault of its own: regulate blood sugar levels.

There is no rest from doing the role of an organ: the mental and physical side effects are relentless and distressing. We are so enormously proud of our brave girl, but we are heartbroken every time we have to have her sit out of playtime with her friends because her blood sugar went low or her CGM stopped working. We agonise every time we have to change her canula for insulin. We regret every time we have to finger prick, or wake her at 2am to force her to drink juice, or perform demanding maths sums every time we serve a meal/snack/drink.

This is for all those living with Type 1, for themselves, and parents of Type 1 children. We have been so lucky to meet incredible people and receive invaluable support - please help us get closer to a world where nobody has to go through this any more.

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