No cure for type 1 diabetes says sufferer

Karen Staveley (above) lives with type 1 diabetes.

Rotorua's Karen Staveley wants people to know what it's like to live with type 1 diabetes - the rarer form of the disease.

November is Diabetes Action Month with many stories focusing on how a healthy lifestyle can prevent type 2 diabetes developing. But for some sufferers, such as Mrs Staveley, there was no choice.

"This is a disease that requires attention all day every day, it is invisible and can be a death sentence," she said.

Around 10 per cent of diabetes sufferers have type 1 diabetes. It generally occurs in childhood, often in children aged 7 to 12 years.

However, it can occur at any age.

Mrs Staveley, 51, only found out she had type 1 diabetes last year.

For two years before that she had been told she had type 2, but her health was not improving and she lost so much weight that she got down to 40kg.

"I was skin and bones."

Mrs Staveley said it was something she had to live with forever.

"People think if you eat healthy and exercise you can cure it, but there is no cure. I want people to understand what it is like to live with type 1, not just type 2. Every day we wake up, prick our finger, count carb and insulin ratios for meals, correct insulin dose if we are having a high blood glucose level or eat if it's low. We have up to 12 finger pricks a day and four to six shots of insulin and a 24-hour insulin shot in the evening."

Karen Reed, president of Rotorua Diabetes branch and vice-president of Diabetes New Zealand, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 10.

"I found it incredibly difficult because a lot of social things are around food and as a child, and an adult, it's hard to not feel different."

Mrs Reed said that while people who had a relative with type 1 diabetes were more likely to get it, it could affect anyone.

According to the Diabetes NZ website diabetes is the result of the body not creating enough insulin to keep blood glucose (sugar) levels in the normal range.

While type 2 diabetes can be prevented, type 1 cannot.

-For more information about Karen Reed's journey go to www.diabetesinfo.org.nz/.