Birmingham family tells how they live with diabetes

Sep 15 2009 by Diane Parkes, Birmingham Mail

Mathew knows signs of danger

MATHEW is pretty sanguine about his condition. He’s had insulin-dependent diabetes for most of the time he can remember, so he simply gets on with it.

Having just started a new school, Castle Vale, there are plenty of changes going on with his daily routine but he has enough experience now to factor that in.

“It is actually a bit easier with the four injections a day. I have one after breakfast, one after lunch, another after dinner and then another before I go to bed which is a 24-hour one,” he says.

“If I do something like PE I have to eat something before I do it and have something after.”

And he also knows how to spot the signs of too little or too much insulin before the situation becomes dangerous.

“If my blood sugar is going low then I feel weird inside and I start feeling like I am sweating although I’m not and my insides go tingly. If it is too high then I can’t stop talking.”

And Mathew, who is a keen guitar player and hopes to set up his own rock group one day, is so used to eating a diet not laden with sugar that he does not really mind that either.

“If I am with my friends and they have a chocolate bar and they offer me one I just wouldn’t eat it,” he says.