words: My name is Charlie. I am 13 years old and was diagnosed with diabetes about a year ago. This was a very inconvenient time to be diagnosed as I had just found out that I was dyslexic and wanted some time to just deal with that before any thing else happened. I am part of a large family of 7 who are very patient and understanding. They have stood by me through the whole of the ordeal. We found out that I had diabetes when we went to the G.P. We went there because over the past few months I had been drinking loads of water. At the G.P they asked us some questions and did a blood test which gave a reading of 34 mmls. They then sent me to the hospital where they confirmed that I was diabetic. I had to stay the night there and in the morning the nurses told me how to give the injections and what to do if I had I hypo and all the other vital things you need to know when you are diagnosed with diabetes. I then went home where our diabetic nurses kept in touch by phone.

Over the next few months we learnt a lot about diabetes both through books that my mum read and the information that Irene (our diabetic nurse) gave us. To begin I seemed to be coping with everything very well but then when I started thinking about how this would affect my life and started to become depressed. We tried a lot of things to try and stop me from getting cross, depressed and sometimes suddenly breaking down into tears. Eventually we found out that the thing that worked the best was playing on the P.S.2 (play station two). This technique worked but I didn't like using it because my mum had always set limits to how long I went on it and I didn't like going on it when I shouldn't.

My depression grew worse and I started to hate special occasions such as birthdays and holidays as they reminded me of the time when I didn't have diabetes and could eat what I wanted. This continued for about six months. I cant remember what stopped my depression but it probably had a lot to do with the love and care that my family gave me and a woman called Alex who comes to talk to me about how I feel once a fortnight. During my depression I missed lots of school but once I got rid of my depression I found it much easier to get into school and most of the teachers were very understanding and were perfectly happy to forget about the work I'd missed and continue teaching me like every one else in the class. And I am now doing very well in almost all my subjects.

One thing I can remember very well when I first started back at school was the fear of the P.E lessons. I was terrified of them and didn't want to do them at all because I was scared of having a hypo and not being able to sort it out. But as I learnt more about diabetes I learnt to enjoy them again and they are now back to being one of my favourite lessons.