Kate | typenoone

Kate Harborne (Co-Founder)

My name is Kate Harborne and I ‘ve been working with Emma over the last year raising awareness about T1D through the Diabetes Support Group.

I’ve been a T1D for nearly a decade. I was diagnosed at the age of 11 – just when we were going through that transition from primary to secondary school. However, I was living in Texas at the time so my treatment was first in a children’s hospital in Dallas.

I remember being thirsty. That summer I’d seen a movie on TV – there was a grandfather on his deathbed. His grandchild had just brought him a glass of water, and the man was telling the boy how one day he’d found he was very thirsty and it was a thirst that had never gone away. And that scared me. I thought I was going to be thirsty until the day I died – in my own defence; I was a melodramatic 10 year-old!

My mum happened to mention a couple of symptoms when she took me to the GP for an ear infection. And I was quickly moved to the Children’s hospital. I've been an insulin "addict" since that day!

While being admitted, a doctor remarked, "This isn’t a death sentence, it’s a life sentence”. That comment has stuck with me over the years.

I joined Emma in her aim to connect the diabetic students of Nottingham at the beginning of the autumn term 2013. I hope that through this group we can support and encourage an attitude that type 1 is a "life sentence" - that nothing, not even diabetes, can stop us from achieving our goals.