It all started on the 2nd February 2003. I was feeling really sick, kept drinking loads of water and kept going to the toilet. My mum was getting worried. It had been going on for days, weeks even.

Mum took me to the emergency doctors. I remember a doctor telling my mum "this is serious get her to the hospital immediately!" I was rushed to doctor Grays hospital. One doctor came to us and said "there's nothing wrong with her, its probably just a sickness bug." Hearing that was horrible I was only 5. I knew something was wrong. I felt like I was going to die. He was wrong!

I also felt scared I didn't know what was going on, I just knew I was seriously ill. Another doctor came to us and took me to a white room. Looking at me he knew what was wrong. He took some of my blood to get it tested . Ages later he came back with the results. My mum had been dreading this and then he said "she has got something called Diabetes."

After that I was taken to another room. He explained what Diabetes was. He told us it was a disease where the cells in your Pancreas don't work. When your body starts to eat all your fat up and produce ketones. I think I had about 6.8 ketones. No wonder I was feeling like I was going to die, you aren't meant to have any!

I had to stay there for a week all hooked up to an insulin drip to make me better. The nights were horrible . They would keep coming in to check my bloods with a huge plastic needle and wake me up.

One night my mum told me a story after the nurse has pricked my finger and I couldn't get back to sleep. The story made me feel better and helped me understand what was happening inside me. I want to share it with other kids to try and help them.

It was about a castle at the top of a big hill. The castle was warm and full of lights, lots of busy workers ran the castle and kept everything working all the time. There were messenger workers whose job it was to collect the wood for the fires. The fires supplied all the energy for the castle. These messengers kept a special key which unlocked the big fires where they put all the fuel they collected.

One day the messengers all disappeared. Nobody knew were they went. It had been snowing outside, but there was no footprints in the snow! Everybody searched the castle but nobody could find the messengers.

Everybody started to feel tired, it was cold and dark as well. Although there was lots of fuel stacked up, nobody could find the keys to unlock the way into the fires. The messengers were the only ones who could do that. As everybody got hungry they got weaker and sleepier and couldn't get out of their cold dark beds.

Then something amazing happened. A magic doctor arrived on a big colourful magic carpet. He had a briefcase and when he opened it new messengers came out of it! The doctor was very nice, and his name was Dr Magic. The doctor told everybody he knew where the messengers went. He whispered it to me, it was our secret!

The new messengers had keys and soon had all the fuel in the fires. Everybody started to wake up again and the castle got warm and light!

Even though I can't remember every detail, I still remember that I'll never ever forget my first experience of being told I was diabetic. Now I am 10 years old. I used to take my insulin twice a day but now I have changed to the basal bolus regime. I take long acting insulin once a day and an injection with or after every meal.

I prefer this regime as it means I can eat what I like, when I like and I no longer get forced to eat dry biscuits when I am not hungry!

I've been diabetic for 5 years now and it doesn't stop me from doing normal things. I go dancing, swimming, horse riding and gymnastics. Being diabetic doesn't make you different, well, just a little bit special!