My name is Emily and I have been diabetic since November 14th 2007 which I soon found out was actually World Diabetes Day!

My symptoms of having diabetes were excessive thirst and passing urine a lot especially at night time, my parents picked up on these quickly as my grandad (my mum's dad) is also diabetic. They took me to the doctors and the doctor advised for me to go and have a blood test at Newbury Hospital as soon as I could because there was a possibility that I may have diabetes.

When I went to get the results for my blood test I was nervous as I knew that if I was diabetic I would have it for the rest of my life and of course, nobody wants to be a diabetic. We went in, sat down and did not have to wait long before we were called in by the doctor. I had butterflies in my stomach. The doctor started to speak about the results but I did not really understand what she was saying, although I could tell by the tone of her voice that the results were not good. I looked at my parents and I could see that there were tears in their eyes, I hugged them tightly and knew that they would stay with me and support me through this long journey that we were going to go through.

We went home and I changed out of my school PE kit, I had been picked that day to play for my house in a netball tournament and I thought I would be going back to school after seeing the doctor. My mum and dad called my Grandparents and arranged for them to collect my little brother up from school at the end of the day, as we had to go to Royal Berks Hospital straight away for some more blood tests to confirm that I was definitely diabetic and for me to see the Paediatric Diabetes Specialist Nurse (PDSN) and the dietician.

When we got there a nurse did some small tests on me and then I had to go and see another nurse for a candela to be put in to my hand. This really hurt and I was relieved when it was finally in. I then had to see a doctor for some other tests, and after that he told me that I had to stay a couple of nights in hospital so that they could teach me about injecting myself with insulin and to tell me more about diabetes. I was taken to the bed in the children's ward which I would be staying in that night and led down on it. I felt tired, confused and upset.

The next day the PDSN came to talk to me about what type 1 diabetes was and what causes it. She also gave me two insulin pens, one for doing my night time injection and the other for doing my three day time injections and a blood sugar meter. She explained clearly how to use these things and reassured me about some of the worries that I had.

The dietician came the day after, to see me and explained about how I needed to eat carbohydrates and how much I was allowed at a time. I was also taught how to read food labels to find out how much sugar and carbs were in that piece of food.

I learnt a lot in the two days I was in hospital and I am still learning now. Those few days seemed to last forever and I thought I would never get back to how I was before I was diabetic. I do sometimes get upset still but have now learnt that getting upset and feeling sorry for myself is not going to make it go away, there are people in the world who are by far worse off than me and so I have accepted that I have got diabetes and that is who I am. I used to think "Why me?" but now I think "Why not me?!"

At first I was a bit nervous about going back to school as I felt different and I did not know how my friends and the teachers would all react. My friends were brilliant though, they understood all about my condition and they always come to the medical room with me to do my injection at lunch time. My best friend also introduced me to somebody in her English class who is diabetic. She has had diabetes for a year longer than me and before my first visit to the clinic she told me all about it and what I would do there. It was nice to talk to somebody the same age as me and who is diabetic as well.

Most of the teachers were ok as well, and understood that when I felt my blood sugar was low I needed to be able to do my blood sugar straight away and they let me eat in class when I needed to, although some of them clearly had no clue about diabetes.

I am now back doing all of the things that I used to do, going into town, shopping with my friends, going running, playing netball , going out for lunch and also doing my injections in front of people who I don't know, which I did not think I would have the courage to do. I am also still allowed to eat most of the things that I used to, I just have to have them with a meal or make sure I do some exercise afterwards so that my blood sugar does not go too high. Sometimes people think that diabetes restricts you from doing a lot of things which I admit so did I at first, but now I know that I am allowed to do all of the things that I used to and I am just the same as anybody else.

I am extremely grateful for the love and support my family and friends have given me, I definitely could not have got this far without them.