Emma | typenoone

Emma Starr (Co-Founder)

Hello! My name is Emma and I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 2010. For a couple of months I’d not been feeling myself: tired, unmotivated, lacking concentration and just generally a bit down! I’d also started losing a bit of weight, which I was monitoring at home and getting weighed regularly. In November 2010 I went to see my GP as I was concerned about the weight loss, but still couldn’t put my finger on anything else that was specifically wrong and I was sent home with the advice of a change of diet! Obviously the symptoms progressed and worsened. I didn’t notice at the time, but looking back I was drinking SO much and couldn’t even last a 1 hour driving lesson without being absolutely desperate for the loo before I got back! The weight loss continued too and started dropping off quicker and quicker until by the end I was losing pounds by the day.

We stayed with family who I hadn’t seen for a few months over Christmas, and every single one of them commented on how ill I looked. I also somehow managed to lose weight over Christmas (despite all the cake and chocolate!) bringing my total weight loss to about one and half stone. So when I got home, on the 29th December (a date I’ll always remember!) I went back to the doctor.

My blood sugar was over 30 and I had urine ketones of ++++ so I was shipped off to A&E and the story goes from there!

I moved away to uni just 9 months after I was diagnosed and am currently studying Medicine. I was lucky enough to get funding for an insulin pump in June 2013.

I attended the DAFNE course in 2012 and this was the first time I’d met people my age also living with type 1 Diabetes. During the course, we would all take a break or go and have lunch together. It was so nice not to be the only one who had to check their sugars and carb count their lunch before they could eat it! I made some good friends during that course, and the impact of peer support stuck me. I wanted to reach out to others living with Type 1 Diabetes and bring us all together- no one should have to live with a chronic illness by themselves! I looked into setting up the group through the uni, and was joined shortly after by Kate!