Beverley Munroe, Type 2 diabetes, Canada

I Wish there was a cure for diabetes, so that children didn't have to suffer.

Total disbelief!  That's what I felt when I was told ten years ago that I had diabetes. I had been feeling under the weather for some time, but I couldn’t really tell you what was wrong – it wasn’t anything specific.  I just felt tired a lot.  But then one day when I was in the store I dropped a glass coke bottle on my foot, and it took ages to heal so I went to the doctor.  That’s when he told me I had diabetes.

I suppose I shouldn’t have been totally surprised – after all my grandmother had diabetes.  But my grandmother didn’t take any medication, and she lived to be 92! I thought: 'If she survived that long, so can I!'  In the beginning I just took tablets, but my blood sugar level was still high. I couldn't plan ahead – I didn't know how I would feel when I woke up in the morning. So I could never arrange to go on a trip too much in advance.

I didn’t want to take insulin, because I thought that would be the beginning of the end.   It was just too much - too serious.  So I avoided taking it as long as I could.  Looking back, I wish I hadn’t been so stubborn because now I’m on insulin and I’ve never felt so good.  I’m raring to go.  I enjoy riding my bike, swimming in my pool, gardening, going out with friends, making porcelain dolls… I’m never bored, that’s for sure!

I monitor my blood sugar level, and try to keep it low by controlling my diet – I don’t eat candy, I try to eat a diet high in vegetables and I make my own multigrain bread.  But right now I have hayfever, and allergies do seem to have an affect on my sugar levels. Even though I feel so good, I wish there was a cure for diabetes.  It upsets me that there are children in the world who perhaps don’t get the level of care I do, and so they can’t lead a life as full as mine.