Living with type 1 diabetes

My name is Rachel. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 11, I am now 29. Typically I was loosing weight when I was younger, drinking alot and also kept getting recurring ear and thrush infections, which is how my doctors worked out I had diabetes.

It wasn't a great surprise for my family, as my paternal grandfather was type 1 and my mum, now has type 2 but also had gestational diabetes. For me it was the fact that I knew I had to inject, I was terrified of needles! But I gradually got used to the injections, well I had to!! Diabetes for me is now a way of life, sometimes it gets me down, having to test blood sugar and not being able to eat the same things my friends can.

My teenage years were harder than my life is now. On terms of drinking alcohol.

Being diabetic is a condition not an illness, and it does not define who I am!

Rachel Oppenheim
London, United Kingdom