Hello,
My name is Helen and I have been a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic for the past 18 years. I am on an insulin pump and have excellent control of my diabetes. My Hba1c is good at 51mmols, and I have full awareness of hypo's. I am also a community nurse and use my car for work to get me around to see my patients as needed, therefore I particularly monitor my levels very closely due to driving.
In June 2014, I suffered two hypoglycaemic episodes during the night time whilst I was in a deep sleep. This was a very unusual occurrence for me and was caused by a sudden increase in temperature whilst I was also under a large amount of stress trying to work full time hours whilst completing a stressful university module. I did require assistance from my partner on both occasions and they occurred within a week of each other. Following support from my Diabetes Specialist Team my basal rates were adjusted and I had no further episodes, my consultant luckily also put in writing that he was happy for me to continue to drive as I am very vigalant at checking my blood glucose levels and monitor them as per DVLA guidelines before driving.
When reapplying for my Driving Licence as normal, I ticked yes to the box which said that I had required assistance from another person to treat two hypoglycaemic episodes within the past 12 months. There was no room to go into details around the context of these hypos and so I attached a letter with my application. On the 21st October I recieved a letter stating that my licence had been revoked on the basis of these two hypo's. When I contacted the DVLA they advised me that they did not need to contact my GP or Consultant to look into my medical records and I automatically no longer met the driving licence criteria. I find it both ignorant and discriminative that the DVLA do not consider these factors as diabetes is a complex condition to manage and if a Consultant thinks someone is medically fit to drive then their professional opinion should be taken into account. After lots of research and letters to raise awareness of this problem it is clear that this rule has come from the EU legislation brought into place in 2011.
I am currently in the process of appealing to the DVLA to try and get my licence back. However, I felt that even if there is minimal chance of me not getting my licence back that i simply could not just sit here and do nothing. So after letters and emails I have now set up a petition which can be accessed here:
https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-dav...ed-carefully-in-the-context-of-the-individual
Please read, sign and share the petition and if anyone wants to contact me you can do so on here or on Facebook where I have set up a group called Action for Diabetic Drivers. I hope that this petition can at least bring the concerns to the government so that these regulations can be reviewed and hopefully prevent this happening to other diabetics. I would also love to hear from anyone that has done this before or is going through the same problem. I hope that it is the case that there aren't many of you, but from my research I worry that this probably isn't the case. Wish me luck!!
Helen Nicholds
Action For Diabetic Drivers