Determined to make a difference and raise diabetes awareness

Heidi-Jane Humphries is trying to be a positive role model for her students.

Diabetes has affected Heidi-Jane Humphries for years, but she's on a mission to show people that the condition doesn't need to get in the way of leading an active lifestyle.

Humphries will compete in next month's Ohope Express running event, which has partnered with the Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association of New Zealand (DESA) to raise awareness about the benefits of exercise and physical fitness.

Humphries is one of the event's ambassadors. She's so determined to compete that she will race while 12-and-a-half weeks' pregnant.

She also volunteers for DESA. Part of her mission is to educate people on the differences between type-1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease, and type-2 diabetes, which is a metabolic disorder.

Humphries has type 1, and still remembers the day she was diagnosed.

"I was 14. Christmas day in 1992."

The date is etched into her memory because of what followed. Humphries had been a champion junior track athlete, ranked No 1 in New Zealand in the 1500m and 3000m. She hoped to get a scholarship to an American university, but the diagnosis effectively dashed that dream.

"It was a hard transition from being a really good athlete to having to monitor your blood sugars and taking insulin and counting all your carbohydrates," she says.

Humphries didn't dwell on the disappointment, though. She continued to compete, and in the following years went on to race for New Zealand in triathlon and duathlon. She has also raced in five Ironmans.

Humphries worked as a primary school teacher for 10 years before she went back to university to do a sports degree. She now teaches secondary physical education and health at the Te Whanau-a-Apanui Area School. Te Whanau-a-Apanui is Humphries' iwi, and she is determined to make a difference in her students' lives.

"I'm really conscious that some of these kids are going home to play on the Playstation or sit on the internet or do nothing. I've tried to give them a positive role model to aspire to - to see someone from their area doing really well in sport.

"They see me with my insulin pump and testing my blood sugars, and they see me eating healthy food and running and cycling around the community. It's just [about] opening their eyes to different types of sport." To ram home that message, Humphries often takes her class on field trips to see athletes in action.

"I took them to the Ironman last year and got them to watch the competitors and gain an appreciation for just how hard people work."

What: Ohope Express
When: Saturday, April 4
Distances: 5km, 10km and 21.1km (half-marathon)
For more information, visit: www.ohopeexpress.co.nz/ohope_express