When my husband, Donald, now 85, got his mixed dementia diagnosis in April 2023, I soon realised that I couldn’t separate the condition from his type 2 diabetes. 

If he has either high or low blood sugar levels, he gets more confused now that he has dementia. And his appetite has also changed, so it makes carb counting more difficult when I’m helping him with his insulin doses.

So I feel as if both conditions I’m supporting him with are closely linked because they have an impact on each other.

The other problem with Donald’s diabetes is that he doesn’t get any hypo warning signs. 

So it’s a constant case of keeping an eye on his blood sugars and making sure he takes the correct dose as it’s complicated for Donald to manage his diabetes now.

Around 18 months ago, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes following a routine blood test. As a very active person who is mindful of my nutrition, the diagnosis came as a surprise.

Before my diagnosis, I used to be someone who was able to fast for long periods of time, however last year I found fasting very challenging as it made me feel very lethargic and extremely weary.

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes six years ago, when I was just 11 years old. 

The diagnosis came unexpectedly one evening when my dad, who is a doctor, noticed that I was unusually thirsty and drinking far more water than normal. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but he decided to check my blood sugar, which turned out to be very high. 

We went straight to the hospital — it was around midnight, and everything happened very suddenly. By the following morning, I had been diagnosed and spent the next few days in hospital coming to terms with what this meant.

My mum lives with type 2 diabetes. When she carried me, she had gestational diabetes and then developed type 2 about 10 years later in her thirties. 

At the age of 28, I was in a new relationship and we were going out to eat a lot. I was enjoying life and having a good time. This meant I’d put on three and a half stone. 

I knew being overweight as well as my mum having had gestational diabetes put me at higher risk of type 2 diabetes, so I went to the doctor to have an HbA1c blood test. 

My HbA1c level was 44mmol/mol which put me into the ‘at risk’ or prediabetic range.

I was in denial. My mindset was not to do something about it as I thought I’m heading down the road to type 2 diabetes anyway. 

I first came across the ELSA study when I was scrolling on social media in late 2023. Having type 1 diabetes, I knew that Imogen would have a higher risk herself and at the back of my mind I’d always thought – ‘is this going to be part of her journey?’. So, I signed her up straight away.

The pack came in the post with a finger-prick blood test kit. We did it, sent it off, and then honestly forgot about it.

Two or three months later I got a call from a member of the ELSA team. They explained that Imogen had some of the protein markers in her blood that they test for, called autoantibodies. But we’d need to visit a hospital to have a further blood test to confirm the results and find out how many autoantibodies Imogen had. That would tell us more about her future risk.

We got a phone call with those results a few weeks later while Imogen and I were in the supermarket car park together. The nurse on the call explained Imogen had three autoantibodies and that meant she was going to get type 1 diabetes at some point in the future. Imogen was so calm about it – she said to me, 'That's OK, can we go and get some chocolate now?'