Helen-Louise was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was three. To help find a cure for diabetes, Helen-Louise asked her wedding guests to donate to Diabetes UK.
I've had Type 1 diabetes from the age of 3. I am 47 now. I got married on 29 August 2015.
My husband Paul and I decided to ask our guests to donate money for Type 1 research instead of gifts. We raised £260 on the day, plus two donations were made directly to diabetes from people who couldn't attend.
My dad was diagnosed with Type 2 at the age of 58 and died from heart problems aged 69. My older brother was diagnosed with Type 1 at 16 and sadly died aged 46, after surgery for a broken leg which led to a blood clot.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of three.
I got married on 29 August 2015 and my husband Paul and I decided to ask our guests to donate money for Type 1 research instead of gifts. We raised £260 on the day, plus two donations were made directly to diabetes from people who couldn't attend.
I became a member of Diabetes UK as a young girl of seven and am amazed at all the changes which have been made since then. I used to inject using a glass syringe and had no blood glucose tests available only Clinitest Urine testing! Our carbs were counted as lines then too!
I've had many ups and downs over the years including severe hypos with ketoacidosis very often during my teens and spent many months in hospital. I had hypos almost every night for two years and ended up in a coma due to one particularly bad one. I never wake up if I go hypo during sleep.I had laser on my right eye in 1997. Had a bad ulcer on the back of my left leg which was not healing for three years and nearly led to amputation. I lost a toe on my left foot to an ulcer and had lots of surgery on my hands, wrists and arm due to Carpal Tunnel and trigger fingers.My HbA1C had never been out of double figures until I did DAFNE in 2009. Since then I've had much better control and my HbA1C is in the normal range since then. My husband sometimes has to use Glucogen as I still do not wake if I go hypo when asleep. I've had several hypos during the night. Stress always affects my diabetes and we've had more than our share of stress!
DAFNE was the best thing for me as I am happier doing mdi to get good control than two jabs a day and poor control. I raised money for Type 1 research on our wedding day as it's very important to me and it felt it was the right thing to do. I was so happy when we raised £260!
I think there is much more media coverage of Type 2 and felt Type 1 needed more of a mention. Type 1s are only a small percentage of the diabetes community, but we are very important too and I feel we get forgotten about a lot of the time.
