I'll start with my diagnosis; because that's at the very beginning and the beginning is the best place to start. The seventeenth of April 2007 was the day I was diagnosed. I was incredibly thin, underweight thin, I was thirsty all the time and kept needing the loo. My mum was worrying about me, as mums do. She booked an appointment with the local GP and they took a urine sample and an incredibly painful blood test from my arm. Later they rang up and said I might have diabetes and if I could come in as soon as possible. My mum cried for ages, I only cried for about ten minutes, but I didn't know what in the world diabetes was.

Soon after a second visit to the GP I was taken to Kings College Hospital in the Jubilee Wing. There I met Dr. Charles Buchanan, Pat Gillard, Barbara Widmer and Dr. Martha Ford-Adams. They taught me all about diabetes. How to use the pen injectors and the blood testing machine, how to manage insulin doses and to carb count.

That was exactly a year and a day ago now; my name is Helena, I'm eleven years old, short, brown haired, green eyed (actually they sometimes go blue), diabetic and proud of it. I don't think anyone should let diabetes get in the way of their life. You can't make diabetes an enemy, ok, it will probably never be your friend, but if it's an enemy you're just making things harder for yourself. I sometimes feel like I can't cope anymore, and if my family weren't telling me that everything's going to be ok and helping me through, I probably wouldn't cope.

Diabetes IS hard, and some people don't understand that. When I'm at school people tell me I'm lucky; because I get to eat snacks. What they don't understand is the fact I inject three times a day, I have five or four blood tests almost every day, and the minimum is three. Some people just don't understand what diabetics go through and that irritates me so, so much!

Diabetes can also BE useful sometimes. A classic for me is getting in first for lunch: I just say that I could have a hypo otherwise. Hey, if you're stuck a lifelong, possibly life threatening disease you might as well enjoy the few benefits it has. Besides diabetics learn important life skills early, and they learn to be more responsible. We learn stuff that will help to us manage later in life, in secondary school and university. We should all be proud of our diabetes! People run marathons for us and the charities that research diabetes, ie: my Dad, I'm so proud of him! People dedicate their lives to finding a cure for diabetes, and they are coming close too. People don't want us to suffer injections every day. That's pretty clear. People want to help us deal with diabetes.

I want to thank everybody who has helped me so far with diabetes, my Mum, my Dad, my two older sisters: Elizabeth and Susannah, my two cats: Bubble and Squeak, my next door neighbour Amanda: who took me scuba diving, my very best friends: Joe, Nadia and Sabrina, Dr. Charles, Pat, Barbara, Dr. Martha and this essay, because writing it has helped me realise that diabetes really doesn't control my life and never will. I've still done every thing I like doing: Swimming, Diving, Scuba Diving and Gymnastics, and diabetes hasn't stopped me, not one little bit.