When I went to a pretend Victorian village I got to see what food people had if they were diabetic. In Victorian times people did not have insulin. We looked in an old book and it told us that people with diabetes ate special foods to try and keep their blood sugars low. They had to eat things like desiccated coconut cake. If they didn't have these special foods they would die. I would rather die than have these horrible foods!! I love glucose tablets but not desiccated coconut cake, yuk!!! To get to have glucose tablets you have to be low, so sometimes I run up and down two flights of stairs to make my blood sugars really low, then I can have some. Mum says I shouldn't do this.

I feel different than everyone else in the world. It's annoying to have diabetes because I can not eat food whenever I want too. When I do my blood sugars and insulin at a party everybody crowds around me and says to me "what are you doing?" but it's hard to explain!!! The good thing about diabetes is that I get snacks when other people can't. At lunch time I choose a friend to come with me to do my blood sugars because I have lunch before everybody else in my class. I like going to clinic because I get to miss the morning off school.

When I first found out I had diabetes I was shocked. When I found out I was diabetic I had to go into hospital and it was the day that I was going to my best friend's sleepover. My friend was worried because she did not know what was going to happen, so she started to cry. When I first saw the needle that they had to inject into my skin I was frightened and I thought it was going to hurt really badly. Now I have had diabetes for two years I am very comfortable with it. I am doing my own blood sugars and injecting my insulin by myself. I got diabetes in year 2 and I was seven years old. I do four injections a day now and at night I use Detemir. For about two weeks when I started having background insulin I use Glargine. I thought the pen was hard to use and so I switched to Detemir. But I might go and use Glargine again because they have better pens now.

At my school we are having a Lent Appeal for diabetes because I asked if we could last year. They could not do it last year, because they had already chosen something, so we are doing it this year. One thing that we did to raise money was called "Find the Item challenge". You had to find all the items and there was a sponsor form with it, so if anybody you know wants to sponsor you they can give as much money as they like. Other things we have done are sell toast or cups of fruit, at morning break times. So far we have raised over £800.

In the summer holidays I am going on the Diabetes UK holiday in Giggleswick. I think it will be fun to go on and that I will be more comfortable with my diabetes holiday because there are people who know about diabetes. Since I got diabetes I have met lots of other children with diabetes. I have been on a picnic, a walk in a park and went to a Christmas party. I like making friends and having fun!!! I thought that we could have a number to call other people with diabetes. It could be called "Dial-a-betic".

A bad thing about diabetes type one is that you can't get it away, so you will have it for your whole life. I like it when I am low because I get glucose tablets, but I don't like it when I am high because I don't get any glucose tablets and I have to take extra insulin. I am a happy girl as well. I hope you have enjoyed the essay.

Bye bye.