D-Blog Week topic 7 – Diabetes Hero

“Let’s end our week on a high note and blog about our “Diabetes Hero”.  It can be anyone you’d like to recognize or admire, someone you know personally or not, someone with diabetes or maybe a Type 3.  It might be a fabulous endo or CDE.  It could be a d-celebrity or role-model.  It could be another DOC member.  It’s up to you – who is your Diabetes Hero??”

Better late than never I have made it to the finish line. I was determined to complete this 7 day blog challenge and am pleased to say I have done so!

It is very apt to finish with a shout out to a diabetes hero. There are so many I could talk about. So many people I have “met” in my 10 year journey in the diabetes world. Before starting this journey I had never spoken to another person with diabetes. Nope, in the 23 years (at that stage) I had lived life with type 1 diabetes I had never actually met another person living with it. And what a difference it made to my life! I can remember the first time I sat down with a group of people all checking our blood glucose at the same time and how amazing that felt. I was not a kid that wanted to do diabetes camps. I wanted to stay right away from identifying myself with this disease.

I am now loud and proud.

So there is one of my diabetes heroes – all the people I have met, spoken to, texted, talked to online and generally come across in the past decade. This includes all the parents, families and passionate diabetes health care professionals. However I want to focus on a couple.

My Mum  – who is the parent of a type 1 (obviously) and for the past 8 or 9 years, a person living with type 2 diabetes. And my Aunty Viv – who is also now a person living with type 2 diabetes.

These 2 women are my rocks. And they rock!

They have walked alongside me in our work caring for other people living with diabetes for the past decade. They have worked tirelessly to keep things afloat, between them being the primary fundraising team, volunteer coordinator, admin support and Counsellor. All of this while they deal with the every day ups and downs of being Mums, Grandmas, daughters and people caring for their own diabetes.

These women and the kind of woman I want to be. These women are what I call the “sandwich mums” – the ones who care for their own mum, my Grandma, who is suffering the cruelty of dementia, their children and their grandchildren and usually keep quiet about their own pain and suffering. problems and struggles. These women give and give and then give some more. These women are passionate, beautiful, funny, caring and generous. These women are my family. These women live with diabetes.

These women are quite simply my diabetes heroes.

Thanks for a great week!

See you in blogland