Bridget Wilkins, aged 69, is a design and oral historian and has had Type 1 diabetes since she was nine years old.
In an exclusive five-part series, Bridget tells Diabetes UK why she encouraged her 87-year-old father, Jim Nicholls – who also had Type 1 – to record his experiences of living with diabetes in the late 1920s.
In his recordings, Jim – who died at the age of 90 in 2001 – talks about his early diagnosis, and then about being under the care of Dr RD Lawrence, who co-founded Diabetes UK along with the novelist HG Wells. During 1928 and 1930, Jim also meticulously kept diaries of his early diagnosis and treatment.
During this ongoing series published over two months, you can also read Bridget's recollections of her own diabetes throughout childhood, during motherhood; and how her father’s legacy still influences her today.