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'The hardest thing is waking up and part of your body has gone'

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child, James O’Neill has faced amputation as a result of his condition

I’m 48 and from Northampton and I have been a type 1 diabetic since the age of 12. I lost an awful lot of weight; I was about five stone at the age of 12, and I collapsed on the football pitch – I was all skin and bones. [I had] the usual symptoms, constantly drinking, going to the toilet all the time. That’s how it started. Type 2 was in the family, so my mum took a urine sample to the doctor’s and it was from there that I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

I was on one insulin injection a day back then – and you didn’t have blood testing devices. I had to test my urine, which was very difficult, and if your blood sugars were slightly high you didn’t do corrections – like you do now – you had to exercise to bring your blood sugar down.

Related: Diabetes diagnoses have more than doubled in 20 years, UK analysis suggests

Continue reading... February 27, 2018 at 05:31AM

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