I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was 5 years old. When I was 7, I went on my first diabetes camp with the East of England Children and Young People's Diabetes Network. At the time, I was feeling sad about my diabetes, as I was the only child with diabetes in my school and I didn't know anyone else with diabetes. At camp, I made lots of friends and wasn't the only one any more.

Some of my best friends are the people I have met through diabetes camps and network events. They have helped support me with everything, including the challenge of acute myeloid leukaemia over the last three years.

I am excited to have the opportunity to go to South Africa on this trip, to experience a whole new culture and understand how other people deal with diabetes. Through fundraising, the South African children will have an opportunity to attend camp, which has been so important to me.

I am aiming to climb the three peaks as part of my fundraising (leukaemia permitting), and will be training for this when I am well enough.

I am joining The East of England Children and Young People’s Diabetes Network on a trip of a lifetime. In March 2026 we are flying to Cape Town, South Africa for The Cape Town Diabetes Partnership Project 2026. We will be hosting a diabetes education and activity camp for children from Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. Tygerberg Hospital serves a large population, with many coming from the Cape Flats, an area of multiple townships where children and their families live in extreme poverty. The camp will provide us with the opportunity to meet peers with type 1 diabetes, learn about the each other's culture and what it means to be a young person with type 1 in these countries. The children and young people from Cape Town will be able to experience various activities they may not otherwise have the opportunity to try, and to learn more about their health condition. The young people from the East of England, supported by health care professionals from around the region will lead education sessions covering various aspects of diabetes management. For many of the participants from Tygerberg this may be the first time that they have been able to learn further about their diabetes since diagnosis. For many of our peers from South Africa this may be the only opportunity, outside of school term time to receive more than one meal per day.

We will also be taking part in a social impact project, working with Sindy who runs a girls football team in Lwandle another of Cape Town’s townships. Sindy and her project aims to alleviate poverty, prevent participants falling into drug addiction and becoming members of the various criminal gangs that abound in the townships.

The project aims to give all participants the opportunity to form relationships with others from both the East of England and peers from Cape Town with diabetes; the opportunity to travel and experience a new culture.

We will be fundraising not only to cover our flights, accommodation and food but also to pay for the diabetes camp. Unfortunately without our funding the camp would not be able to take place. We are also fundraising to support the continued work of Sindy and her team, and to take over some well-needed supplies and resources.

Your donation will help as:

- It costs £85 for one person to attend the camp at Taaibosch

- It costs £17 for a sanitary bag for each attendee, this included toothbrush, tooth paste, soap, flannel, torch, drawstring bag, hypo treatment.

- It costs £13 for each child in attendance to have a camp t-shirt

- It costs £25 for each South African young person to have a hoodie

- It costs £400 to provide return transport for the young people attending camp from Tygerberg Hospital.

Thank you for your support