'I started to live out my dreams'

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2003 when I was 20 years old, and have now lived with the condition for 10 years.

I have always remained on Novomix 30, injecting myself twice a day. While I coped with this condition, it has somewhat held me back from perusing my dreams. Not really because of official restrictions, but because of my confidence. I always felt that I couldn't do certain things because of my condition.

All this though changed when I started to look at life differently. I started to live life a lot more positively and made some major changes in my life. I decided to take a break from alcohol (18 months and still going) and also decided to quit my office job and pursue a dream of travelling around the world.

I have just now come back from a 9 month travelling stint and had the most incredible time. I visited USA, New Zealand, Australia and a few countries in South East Asia. Other than a few incidents, my diabetes did not prevent me from doing anything I wanted and I just lived out my dreams. It truly was the best decision I have ever made.

For so many years I thought I could not go travelling, being a Type 1 diabetic. Negative questions would always arise in my head like, where will you store your insulin? What if you lost your insulin? What if there were no fridges, and so forth. But rather than just accept these negative thoughts, I decided to do some research and get the real facts.

I'm writing this story to let everyone know, who has similar negative thoughts to what I had before I went travelling, that 'life will pay whatever price you ask of it' This is a quote from Tony Robbins, who him and many other positive people inspired me to follow my dreams and live whatever life I wanted. I went for my dreams and everyone else can too. All it requires is a change of thought, and of course, ACTION! I would be more than happy to speak to anyone else about travelling if they wished, or any other thing which is holding them back.

I wish you well and a life full of prosperity.

Words by Jamie