Twins and sister to be face of national campaign by Diabetes Australia

Each serving of food is weighed to the gram, the carbohydrate content is calculated and recorded in a book, and their insulin levels are tested.

Identical twins Connor and Ayden, 10, and their seven-year-old sister, Isabella, have their fingers pricked for a blood glucose test at least 30 times a day.

All three children have type 1 diabetes, despite neither parent having the condition. The children face a lifetime of juggling food, exercise and insulin injections to balance their unstable blood glucose levels.

The Melbourne children are the face of a new national campaign launched by Diabetes Australia, to raise awareness of the more than two million Australians who are at high-risk of developing diabetes. Yet 80 per cent of Australians are not aware this could happen to them.

Professor Paul Zimmet, a member of the World Health Organisation Expert Panel on Diabetes, said the campaign would call on the Federal Government to develop a national strategy to prevent complications from diabetes, stop more people from developing the lifestyle related type 2 diabetes, and reduce the impact of diabetes on pregnant women and indigenous people.

"On current trends, diabetes will become the number one burden of disease in Australia in the next five years," Prof Zimmet said.

Shannon Macpherson said that while her children had all adapted well to the vital routines of daily insulin injections, finger prick tests and strict eating patterns, diabetes was a heartbreaking condition that urgently needed a cure.

Connor was diagnosed at age four, Ayden developed the condition five years later and Isabella in 2008.

"We don't tell them about the complications for when they get older, but we've had to tell them that it's not going to go away," Ms Macpherson said.

"They'll need injections for the rest of their lives, but it wasn't because of anything they'd done wrong.

"We have to hold Isabella down twice a day to give her injections, that's one of the hardest parts."

Title : Twins and sister to be face of national campaign by Diabetes Australia
Published on : Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Category : Diabetes
Post URL : http://internal-med.blogspot.com/2013/07/twins-and-sister-to-be-face-of-national.html