That is MY goal. I will be 107 when it happens.
There is a guy whom I have met during my routine frequent controls in the local teaching hospital (outside UK), that has type one. He’s had it for 72 years.
My absolute superhero of a person with diabetes he is! 73 years with the old T1D and still going strong with no complications !!!!!!
Would be great to hear if there are any members of the community with any types of diabetes condition to share their positive experiences with us...
not necessarily 50 years with diabetes but, 20 and more years also please.
Hi
@luv2spin I got my Nabarro Medal for 50 years in August 2009. The following is lifted out of the book in my avatar:
On 4th September 2009, the first Friday of the new School Year, the children took part, together with the Staff, as usual, in what is known as Living Together Day, which enables them to work in teams on timed challenges and as a result find out characteristics of others which may not be apparent in the classroom. The local press were present, but not for the children. On 9th July I had achieved fifty years of diabetes (Malfunction) and as such was eligible for the Nabarro (not Sir Gerald!) Medal which is issued by Diabetes UK in memory of Alan Nabarro, who presented it. The “ceremony” took place in the Diabetic Clinic at The West Suffolk Hospital in the late half of August. I was told to be there at 08.30 and report to the Receptionist. As usual the waiting area was filled with faces that looked stony, resentful, anxious or blank. There wasn't a medic to be seen.
I sat there with Helen, Stephanie and Neil (who were to marry on 29th August) dressed as though I was going to the beach. After a while a gang appeared, spearheaded by Dr Clark:
“Mr Vicat, would you like to stand up please?”
(Er not really)
“Here we have a remarkably fit patient who has lived with diabetes for just over fifty years and is an example to us all.”
(Stony or alarmed expressions abound)
“Can I just say that I would not be here but for the geniuses who work at King's College Hospital, The West Suffolk Hospital and the first hospital to treat me?”
“That may be so, but it is your attitude to your condition that has played a vital role in your survival.”
And so I was presented a medal in a little blue velveteen box.
I felt curiously deflated.
As I walked through Bury St Edmunds with my family, I happened to bump into Dr Ruth Lister(see page 13)who was gratifyingly celebratory. It was then that I started to think how I might celebrate the event. It occurred to me that the reason I was able to exist was due to (eventually) obeying instructions from professionals like E.W.G. Davies, the late Dr David Pyke, Dr Peter Watkins, Dr Amanda Adler, and the entire Nephrology and Pancreatic specialist teams at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. I began to think how I might encourage children and teenagers, treading a similar path to mine, to not shut the door on medical advice.
That is what inspired me to write. Four years later, on August 13-14th 2013 I underwent a kidney pancreas transplant at Addenbrooke's Hospital, thus ending 54 years and 14 days of injections. It is amazing to hear of people living for over 70 years with Type1, when you think how primitive treatment has been up to the late 1970's. As technology advances at an unimaginable rate, I am sure these achievement medals will start to dwindle. If I'm proved wrong, I hope patients have a smoother ride to "stardom" than some of us from the Pleistocene era! All the best