This week as we mark Diabetes Week, we want to celebrate what makes you, you.
If you or any of your family has been diagnosed with Type 1 or 2 Diabetes you will be more than familiar with the ongoing ritual of blood sugar measuring, carb counting, HbA1c, blood pressure; the hospital appointments, the never-ending stream of numbers that can quite literally help keep you alive.
And it doesn’t stop, there are no days off, you can’t have a cheat day and worry about it tomorrow, you have to face diabetes head on, every minute of every day and try not to let it hold you back.
My daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 9, she’s 21 now and so has lived with diabetes longer than without it. This year she graduates from university, she has her future mapped out, ongoing professional training, chosen employment secured, holidays booked. Friends and colleagues remark on how well she is doing, how very proud I must be, and I am, I don’t think there is a prouder mum to be found in the whole of the UK right now but not for the reasons they think.
I’m proud that she has chosen to face her diabetes battle head on, I’m proud that even on the days she suffered repeated Hypos or struggled to regain control of unexplained highs she never gave up. She has never stopped running on the treadmill that is diabetes – she is some much more than her numbers!