Diabetes fight

By Danielle Galvin
A GROUP of mums who have started up a type one diabetes support group for parents of children with the disease will tell you they sleep with one eye open.
Most people make the mistake that type one diabetes is caused by too much sugar in a child’s diet or unhealthy eating behaviours, but there is no known reason and no cure.
Hearing for the first time that their children have type one diabetes – for life – was heartbreaking and confusing for the parents of these three young ones.
These children also have to deal with bullying at school and their classmates who don’t understand why they don’t get to have a lolly in class too.
Berwick mums Deborah Bayley and Paula Catania, alongside Suzie Silva from Longwarry, form part of the team the Courageous 1’s.
On Sunday 21 October, the mums, who meet regularly with others from their informal support group, will do the Walk to Cure Diabetes for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).
Deborah Bayley has an 11-year-old son with type one diabetes.
He was diagnosed at two and a half.
She says Ryan, like the other children with type one diabetes, have so much to deal with too young.
“With these kids, their childhood has been robbed,” she said.
“We have to test them throughout the night and sometimes we have to get them to eat, which is really hard for them – to feel like eating something at 3am in the morning.
“It’s a 24-hour battle.”
Ms Bayley, like the other mums in the group, is hoping to raise awareness but they want a cure to help their kids, and for other families dealing with the disease.
“We just want the cure – there needs to be more awareness of what type one diabetes is and the circumstances in which these children live,” she said.
“It is usually diagnosed in young children before they are 30, which is the cut-off point I believe.
“If you don’t live it, you just don’t know what it’s like.”
Suzie Silva has four children and her four-year-old son Tristan Pope has type one diabetes and was diagnosed at 23 months.
She says that there is a lot of misinformation about the disease.
“Night-time is the most frightening – you have to sleep with one eye open,” she said.
“People just don’t understand what it’s like to wake up in the morning and have to check that your child is still breathing.
“Unfortunately a lot of people believe it’s caused by too much sugar.”
Until she met Deb, Suzie had no idea that her family was one of thousands across the country with a child with type one diabetes.
“I thought I was the only one until I met Deb. I found a support group online,” she said.
“It is a lot of pressure – especially when he gets sick. Their immune systems are low anyway, so it can be really dangerous.”
Ms Silva said she believed there were about six children a day diagnosed with the disease.
Another mum in the group is Paula Catania, whose 12-year-old daughter Sarah has type one diabetes and was diagnosed at the age of two.
Paula explained that Sarah has a pump which acts like an artificial pancreas that sits on her hip 24 hours a day and administers insulin when she has tested her blood sugar and counted her carbohydrates intake.
“It affects so many other organs, their eyes, kidneys, feet, possible loss of limbs, loss of sensation of fingertips due to finger pricks and celiac disease, an intolerance to gluten products,” she said.
“We do suffer in silence – nobody sees what we go through.
“And the thing is they (the children) don’t know any better – this is their life and they don’t know what it’s like not to have so much to deal with.”
The JDRF Walk for a Cure is on at the Albert Park Lake in South Melbourne on Sunday 21 October from 10.30am.
It’s a 4.7 kilometre walk and to donate to the cause, visit the Courageous 1’s team fundraising page walk.jdrf.org.au/VIC/TheCourageous1's.
Anyone wanting to be a part of the group can contact Deb on 0404 898 044.