In March 2025, we started the 14-day course of teplizumab at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. My husband and I arranged to take time off work and stay nearer the hospital. And I know there were a lot of things the team in Birmingham had to do to make it all happen.

On the first day of treatment they put in a cannula, which they’d use to give Imogen a daily infusion of teplizumab. The infusion only took about 30 minutes, but we’d stay in the hospital for most of the day so Imogen could be monitored.

Imogen coped brilliantly throughout – she’s so resilient. She didn’t feel sick or tired. Midway through the course, her white blood cells did drop. We’d been told to expect this because teplizumab targets the immune system. It looked like we might need to delay the next day’s dose, but fortunately they came back up again quite quickly.

If anything, boredom was the hardest part. Then we got to day 14 and that was it – all done!

Imogen was advised to wear a mask for a few days afterwards because the drug temporarily lowers immunity. She did catch a cold but bounced back quickly.

Now Imogen has follow–up appointments every six months, with blood tests or an oral glucose tolerance test, to check her blood sugar levels and how her pancreas is working. 

Thomas uses his CGM alongside his hybrid closed loop insulin pump to manage his diabetes. Moving from insulin pens and finger pricks to an insulin pump was great – it gave my son a little more freedom with his diabetes management by taking some of the thinking away from his day. He no longer feels embarrassed injecting insulin in public to eat even the smallest things. He’s also experiencing less hypos than before as the pump recognises downward trends in blood glucose and automatically suspends ‘background’ insulin to help decrease the chance of his blood sugar getting too low, among other features.

That’s when my consultant, Dr Schofield at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, mentioned a treatment called teplizumab. Dr Schofield explained that this treatment could extend the amount of time I had before becoming insulin dependent, by targeting the immune system, stopping it from attacking my insulin-producing cells for a while.

I was really keen to continue living my life as I was doing, without insulin, for as long as possible. I did my own research, and Dr Schofield put me in touch with a professor in Birmingham who’s a leading researcher on early-stage type 1 diabetes. He told me that if his own child were developing type 1, he’d want them to have teplizumab. That really reassured me.

I knew my blood sugars were rising and was told that I would soon be dependent on insulin to manage them. The window to have the treatment was closing fast, so I decided to go ahead.

Starting treatment

I had the treatment at Manchester Royal Infirmary in September 2025. Teplizumab is given as an infusion, ideally over 14 consecutive days. The team looking after me were amazing. I cannot thank them enough. They worked tirelessly, not only to ensure that the whole process ran smoothly and safely, but to get to know me and ensure that I felt comfortable.

This was invaluable as the treatment course wasn’t all plain sailing. On the second day I had a fever, and on day three my blood pressure dropped suddenly, and I fainted. I was diagnosed with cytokine release syndrome, which is a known side effect of treatments like teplizumab. 

It was scary and I remember thinking at the time, “What have I put myself through?” but the team were brilliant and managed it straight away. I felt unwell with a fever and extreme fatigue for a couple more days which meant my treatment had to be paused on day six.

However, after that, the rest of the treatment went much more smoothly. By the final week, I was working remotely from the hospital during the day and feeling completely fine. It really was a rollercoaster, but I’m so glad that I did it.

Within two weeks of finishing the treatment, I started seeing changes in the readings from my continuous glucose monitor. With some small tweaks to my diet, my time in range has jumped from 70% to 95%, and my blood sugars aren’t spiking as frequently or for as long after meals.

After finding out about my early-stage type 1 diabetes, I’d previously asked my doctors if there were any treatments or research trials I could be on. And at the time there was nothing.

But in early 2025, my consultant in Exeter told me, “There’s a possibility we may be able to get hold of a drug that could push back your full type 1 diagnosis.” And then it clicked that this drug – teplizumab – was something I’d read about before on Diabetes UK’s website and in the news.

I knew it was being used in the US and knew the data that was out there showing it could delay type 1 diabetes by two or three years. So, I wasn’t concerned that it was ‘new’ and I didn’t really hesitate. Because I had that insight from my pregnancies of what it’s like dealing with the daily grind of insulin injections, blood sugar checks and carb counting – the idea of pushing type 1 back that bit further was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

Some people might say, “oh two extra years without type 1, that doesn’t sound a lot”. But for someone living with type 1 diabetes, they’d probably do anything to have even an extra week without it. And hopefully two years is the minimum, and then researchers can develop something that means five years, or 10 years, or ultimately forever, without type 1.

Everything happened quickly after that. But I know the team at Exeter worked incredibly hard to get me access to the drug and get everything ready to treat me with it. I felt very lucky because I just had to say “yes” and then turn up. I wasn’t feeling particularly apprehensive, just excited.

I’d need to go into hospital every day for 14-days to receive the course of teplizumab. I decided to book that time off work. I spent around three or four hours each day in the hospital. They started me on a very low dose of teplizumab, gradually increasing it until day five.

The doctors had talked to me about possible side effects. They explained that my white blood cell count would drop and that I might feel unwell mid-way through the course. They were right – around day five I had nausea and some vomiting and did feel rough for a couple of days.

But I was monitored closely the whole time and apart from that everything went fine. It was actually quite nice having this new daily routine and spending time with the lovely nurses.

Over the years, I’ve tried numerous technologies, insulins and hypo treatments, to find what works best for me. 

I grew up administering insulin injections around 5-7 times a day but when I hit my teenage years, I was incredibly lucky to be introduced to pump technology. With this tiny little device, I felt pretty invincible.

With all of this technology, I feel so unbelievably lucky that it’s right at my fingertips, even with diabetes being a tough condition. I’m forever grateful that there are individuals working so hard to develop this technology – making our lives better and ultimately saving lives.