Life with type one diabetes in pictures

These are just some photos which basically just sum up most of the "major" events that have happened in my life with type one diabetes in the past couple of years. I started to really get into doing stuff about it  (like walks and awareness raising etc.) within a few of years after diagnosis; the first couple of years of being diagnosed was pretty much just about learning and getting my head round things! Hence why there is a big jump from 2009 to 2011. 

I'll start with the day I was diagnosed: June 21st 2009

We ran the Race For Life that day; and that evening I was in the hospital having been diagnosed as type 1 diabetic. 

June 14th 2011: The day I got my insulin pump; Maurice.

                                                                                                                                                                 

. Around August 2012 or 2011: Around when I first joined twitter I think and then not long after that I discovered the Great Britain Online Diabetes Community and just the rest of the #doc in general! 

February 2013: 2nd time being in DKA. I think it was around Feb. I've forgotten the exact dates! ha ha. (I have no photos from the first time I don't think! Which was in June 2012 I think, if I remember rightly) Both of the first two times in DKA were due to pump cannula issues.  

March 2013: When I started this blog!

March 2013: Coming across Paris on Instagram. Over a year later and she is easily my diabetic best friend! I am so thankful to have met her, I love her so much and she totally gets what I'm going through because she goes through it too. I am just so grateful that I know her. 

June 2013: Going to Parliament with Diabetes UK and doing a speech for their campaign 'Type 1 Essentials'.

September 2013: Doing the JDRF Walk To Cure Diabetes in London with my mum and auntie! 

October 2013: The 3rd time being in DKA. Not fun! Being unwell with type one diabetes doesn't really mix. 

January 2014: Taking a pump break.

February 2014: 'Kidney scare' first visit to Great Ormond Street Children's hospital to have my kidney function double checked after annual review showed protein. My kidneys are ok by the way. 

 March 2014: Type 1 Parliament with JDRF! Being co-chair and doing a speech, plus meeting some amazing people. Like Grumpy pumper a.k.a Chris, Laura, Lydia and Nathaniel. 

Early March 2014: Getting my Hba1c down to 9.7% from it being 12.5% just 6 weeks prior to that. And I also got it under 10 for the first time in literally a couple of years. 

March 2014: Being in DKA for the fourth time. This time due to sore throat and wisdom teeth infection. Like  I said being unwell with type one diabetes doesn't mix very well!

April 2014: Becoming a peer trainer for the Tree of Life Project which is basically just a diabetes support group which runs every year at the hospital. 

May 2014: Second time going to Great Ormond Street Hospital to check my kidney function, all seems to still be okay!

May 2014: Just a little glimpse into the life of a type one diabetic teenager, it's a struggle when your insulin pump tubing gets tangled in your headphones.

So that's it so far really. I just want to thank everyone like my mum, my dad, my family and my friends (both non-diabetic and diabetic!) for helping me through all of this, for all your support and for helping to make life with type one diabetes so much easier for me, because it's hard it will never truly be "easy" but the amazing people that I have in my life help to make it as "easy" as it could possibly get I suppose. I don't know how I would have coped with, or achieved a lot of the stuff in this blog post if it wasn't for you all, especially my parents- and I will never be able to put into words just how much I love my mum and dad and just how grateful I am to them for everything that they do for me, I couldn't be more grateful for them. Strangely, I am grateful to this disease, but just simply for the good things that have come about in my life due to type one diabetes, like meeting my diabetic best friend Paris, and going to Parliament twice with both JDRF and Diabetes UK, and meeting all of the amazing people that I did. Even the episodes of DKA as much as they sucked and were such an awful experience; I have come back stronger with all four and I will never stop fighting against type one diabetes.