My Sister-in-Law's niece Tess has had type 1 diabetes for almost 3 years and this is her letter to her local MP. This is truly inspirational and I'm so proud of everything she has overcome and achieved in the past 3 years. Take the time to read this and see how much type 1 diabetics have to put up with. I know that there are lots of Type1's out there who know exactly how she feels, but also please do bear in mind that she was only just 8 years old when diagnosed. I myself am Type 2, but on insulin and testing before all meals etc, but at 50 have learned to cope.
Well done Tess!
If anyone feels strongly about this please do copy this to their MP.
Her Father writes:- Tess and myself are going to Parliament on 11/3 to lobby for Type 1 research funding. Tess has written to Ben Gummer, her MP - she sat by herself and typed furiously. I am proud of her words, and reproduce them here. This is what she feels.
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Hello Ben,
My name is Tess, I'm 12 years old and I was diagnosed with type1 diabetes when I was 8, about a week before my ninth birthday. 25th ...of October 2010. This day has changed everything: what I eat, how confident I feel, how my family and I deal with our every day lives.
I thought,now, may be a good time to notify you that throughout my letter to you I will refer to Type 1 Diabetes as T1. As it is simpler and what I am more used to....it also makes it clear it is not Type 2!
Diabetes. – 1 word has changed my life.... and not in a good way! Although my family, friends do not, I consider myself, well...Different. Its not a nice feeling, believe me I should know! I have had 3 years of feeling this way and only recently have I been beginning to overcome it. It is, however hard when your parents weigh every single morsel of food you eat and even in public!! I am daily given comments from some people like: ”you can't eat that,its got sugar in it”or “Cor Tess,if you ate that you might die!” when people say this I feel singled out, and different, especially if it is my friends passing those comments.
I will now tell you a true story it may sound like a simple misunderstanding to you but for me it hurt... a lot. I was in school, a “normal” geography lesson, as it were, and my teacher had just come in,with a slice of millionaire shortbread,we were all in a good mood this particular day ,even my strict teacher and so I was taking about how I like to make shortbread. Now here come the pain. One of my best friends sat behind me and she said (with a smile on her face almost laughing) “ you cant eat that Tess, you know you can't, if you did you would die.” I turn round to face the desk I was on and didn’t speak for the rest of the lesson in fear of crying in front if my friends.
Not only do I face peoples misunderstanding but there's lots I have to do to live with T1. I have to do a blood test every single time I eat something (and other times – like when I do sports) normally about 6 times in 1 day. Luckily I now have an insulin pump - instead of doing manual injections - it administers the insulin (which my body does not produce) through a cannula but that means I have another needle stabbed in me every 3 days. Although all this is hard I manage to do 90% of it myself with only little assistance sometimes.
Me and my parents have to work out the carbs in every thing I eat, which is a real pain (especially, as I said, when they insist on weighing rather than estimating). If we get it wrong even a little I “go low” and feel awful, or I “go high” which is not good for the future. However it does make you good at maths.
So things in my life are getting better with the change of injections to pump and also my confidence is improving – for example previously I hid my pump away so no-one could see but on my 3 year anniversary of T1 I wore it on show to all my classmates and I do this nearly everyday now thanks to their support. I don't let T1 stop me, and I play in the school football team, was in Oliver at the Regent last year, and most Saturdays run the “ParkRun” 5K in chantry park.
I don't want it to be like this forever and that’s why I need your help. If you and other members of parliament had the government invest more money into T1 research (and did more to support the JDRF charity) so we can work to find a cure and also find ways to make mine and other diabetics lives just that little bit simpler and better (like pumps did) that would be great!
These improvements will make my, my friends, my teachers, my family and all other T1s lives so much easier.
I'd also like you to think about how the government can help make our lives easier – for example simple rules so that restaurants need to have all nutritional values at hand so we don’t have to guess (or worse weight everything). Schools should have to have presentations on what Type 1 is and how there comments can effect people like me – I did one myself at my old school – Britannia Primary.
I cannot forget my Type 1 the choices I make daily have a serious impact on my heath. And all this simply adds up to one request: Please meet me so we can talk about Type 1 and JDRF and convince you to come to JDRFs day on 11th March.
You can help me say one day :“I used to have T1.”
Thanks please come and meet me!
Yours truly,
Tess .
Well done Tess!
If anyone feels strongly about this please do copy this to their MP.
Her Father writes:- Tess and myself are going to Parliament on 11/3 to lobby for Type 1 research funding. Tess has written to Ben Gummer, her MP - she sat by herself and typed furiously. I am proud of her words, and reproduce them here. This is what she feels.
-------------
Hello Ben,
My name is Tess, I'm 12 years old and I was diagnosed with type1 diabetes when I was 8, about a week before my ninth birthday. 25th ...of October 2010. This day has changed everything: what I eat, how confident I feel, how my family and I deal with our every day lives.
I thought,now, may be a good time to notify you that throughout my letter to you I will refer to Type 1 Diabetes as T1. As it is simpler and what I am more used to....it also makes it clear it is not Type 2!
Diabetes. – 1 word has changed my life.... and not in a good way! Although my family, friends do not, I consider myself, well...Different. Its not a nice feeling, believe me I should know! I have had 3 years of feeling this way and only recently have I been beginning to overcome it. It is, however hard when your parents weigh every single morsel of food you eat and even in public!! I am daily given comments from some people like: ”you can't eat that,its got sugar in it”or “Cor Tess,if you ate that you might die!” when people say this I feel singled out, and different, especially if it is my friends passing those comments.
I will now tell you a true story it may sound like a simple misunderstanding to you but for me it hurt... a lot. I was in school, a “normal” geography lesson, as it were, and my teacher had just come in,with a slice of millionaire shortbread,we were all in a good mood this particular day ,even my strict teacher and so I was taking about how I like to make shortbread. Now here come the pain. One of my best friends sat behind me and she said (with a smile on her face almost laughing) “ you cant eat that Tess, you know you can't, if you did you would die.” I turn round to face the desk I was on and didn’t speak for the rest of the lesson in fear of crying in front if my friends.
Not only do I face peoples misunderstanding but there's lots I have to do to live with T1. I have to do a blood test every single time I eat something (and other times – like when I do sports) normally about 6 times in 1 day. Luckily I now have an insulin pump - instead of doing manual injections - it administers the insulin (which my body does not produce) through a cannula but that means I have another needle stabbed in me every 3 days. Although all this is hard I manage to do 90% of it myself with only little assistance sometimes.
Me and my parents have to work out the carbs in every thing I eat, which is a real pain (especially, as I said, when they insist on weighing rather than estimating). If we get it wrong even a little I “go low” and feel awful, or I “go high” which is not good for the future. However it does make you good at maths.
So things in my life are getting better with the change of injections to pump and also my confidence is improving – for example previously I hid my pump away so no-one could see but on my 3 year anniversary of T1 I wore it on show to all my classmates and I do this nearly everyday now thanks to their support. I don't let T1 stop me, and I play in the school football team, was in Oliver at the Regent last year, and most Saturdays run the “ParkRun” 5K in chantry park.
I don't want it to be like this forever and that’s why I need your help. If you and other members of parliament had the government invest more money into T1 research (and did more to support the JDRF charity) so we can work to find a cure and also find ways to make mine and other diabetics lives just that little bit simpler and better (like pumps did) that would be great!
These improvements will make my, my friends, my teachers, my family and all other T1s lives so much easier.
I'd also like you to think about how the government can help make our lives easier – for example simple rules so that restaurants need to have all nutritional values at hand so we don’t have to guess (or worse weight everything). Schools should have to have presentations on what Type 1 is and how there comments can effect people like me – I did one myself at my old school – Britannia Primary.
I cannot forget my Type 1 the choices I make daily have a serious impact on my heath. And all this simply adds up to one request: Please meet me so we can talk about Type 1 and JDRF and convince you to come to JDRFs day on 11th March.
You can help me say one day :“I used to have T1.”
Thanks please come and meet me!
Yours truly,
Tess .
