PE teacher Shane thought all was in order for the school trip to Italy, but hadn't counted on things going wrong so early on...
I run a lot of school trips and a couple of years ago had a girl with diabetes sign up to go on our ski trip to Italy. I spent a lot of time making sure that we had everything in place for to have a great trip.
I had an hour meeting with her mum, an hour meeting with the school nurse and an hour meeting with the diabetic nurse from the hospital. I then had another meeting with her mum when she handed over three to four days worth of insulin, a spare blood sugar monitor, strips and the emergency needle just in case the Italian ambulance didn't carry it.
I read up a lot of extra information and made all the staff aware of what to look out for and how to deal with the situation. I had known the girl a long time and was happy we would be fine. I took all the extra equipment for her in an extra bag and checked it at least three times every hour on the night before we left. I even made sure I had a print out in Italian of 'Please don't turn my fridge off, it has lifesaving medicine in it." to show to the hotelier. I thought I was all set.
The day came to leave and we all met at school. I chatted to her mum and dad and reassured them that I would look after her. We all boarded the coach and set off from Leeds. At about Sheffield, a message was passed up the bus to me that she wanted to talk to me. I thought we can’t have a problem already? So I went down the back of the bus and asked her what's up.
Her response was golden. She said, "I have forgotten my insulin and monitor. I went back into the house to get my straighteners and put it down and forgot it". I was slightly panicked now. I went to the front of the bus and found her parents number and rang them only to find they were at the departure gate about to go on holiday. So we stopped at the next services and waited over two hours for her sister to drive down with all her equipment.
We only missed two ferries and were seven hours late to resort. The other kids were really great about it. The rest of trip was fab and she had a great time. We took her again this year and 11 staff asked her did she have her insulin before she got on the coach.
