Aged 10, with diabetes, and already her ideal world's gone

By REBECCA WALSH

In Saskia Henry's ideal world everyone would live in libraries, there would be no diabetes, no wars and money would grow on trees.

But the Murray's Bay school pupil knows the world is less than perfect. At 7, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

"I was really mad, thinking why did it have to be me?" she remembers.

"I had been on holiday four-wheel-driving. Mum has lots of diabetics at school so she knows the signs. I was drinking and eating a lot, and going to the toilet a lot."

The news was heartbreaking for her mother, Kim, an intermediate school teacher, who cried for days and then frantically began reading and learning as much as she could about the disease.

"I was a complete mess. In the hospital you have to absorb all this information and then deal with the child when you get home."

"I had taught kids who were diabetic and understood the impact on their life. Saskia had none of that knowledge. She doesn't care about not drinking alcohol, that might be a bit different when she's 18."

Ten-year-old Saskia gets annoyed when people group Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes together, as there was nothing she could have done to prevent getting the condition, and often people don't realise how serious it is.

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune condition where the body attacks the cells that make insulin. It is not preventable.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not make enough insulin or properly use the insulin it does produce. It can be prevented or managed with regular exercise, healthy eating and, in some cases, medication.

Two-and-a-half years after she was diagnosed, Saskia is becoming an expert at injecting herself with insulin, and is getting better at knowing what she can and cannot eat and when her blood-sugar levels are out of kilter.

Although she quickly came to accept that she would die if she did not inject herself, there are things she misses.

"I can't have big sleep-ins. I have to be up by 8am to start eating so I can have an injection.

"It's annoying when I go to friends' birthdays and I have a really thin piece of cake and they get the big pieces."

Diabetes does not stop Saskia getting on with her life. As well as sailing, she plays netball, and goes to dancing and speech and drama classes.

She likes the idea of becoming a scientist and finding a cure for diabetes but Mrs Henry is not pinning her hopes on a cure.

"We have got to learn to live with it, but hopefully there is something around the corner."

Further reading
nzherald.co.nz/health