KITLIVING
I
ulia Stefan was 20 when she
was diagnosed with T1D. She
says, "I was living in London
at the time and went online
and used the NHS symptom
checker and diagnosed myself. It said to
go to hospital, but I didn't go. At that time
my grandad was ill and I didn't want to put
more pressure on the family. Looking back,
I didn't realise how dangerous that was.
"After about a month my symptoms
were so bad I was falling asleep all the
time. My grandad died so I went back
to Romania for his funeral. Once my
parents saw me they knew straight away
something was wrong and made me go to
hospital. It all happened at once. I was less
upset about my diagnosis then I was about
losing my grandad. I was in hospital for a
week in Romania then, when I came out,
I went back to university. I was studying
architecture at East London University. It
took about a year and half before I saw
anyone in an actual NHS diabetes clinic
as I had been diagnosed abroad, so the
referral took a while. However, there was
a nurse at my local GP surgery near
Limehouse who had other Type I patients
and she helped me a lot.
"I'm 28 now and attend clinic at
Mile End Hospital. I'm a self-employed
architectural designer working on several
projects. I also blog, run a YouTube
channel and make jewellery out of used
diabetes equipment such as pump tubing
and insulin cartridges and hope to sell
these online soon along with stickers to
go on Libre sensors.
On tap
Rosie Vincent was diagnosed on 21
December 15 years ago at the age
of eight. She is 23 now. "I lost loads of
weight and knew something wasn't
right. I started having to have a drink of
water out of the tap during the night,"
she remembers, "I told my mum how
thirsty I was. She got the last doctor's
appointment that Friday night. He told
us to measure what I drank and measure
how much I weed out over the weekend.
He suspected it was diabetes and when
we went back on Monday and told him
the results, he said 'you've definitely got
diabetes'. I didn't go to hospital but had
a crash course, a day full of information
about living with diabetes. A nurse visited
us on Christmas Eve and gave advice on
eating at Christmas time. For injections,
I used to hold a cushion while my mum
jabbed me. My grandad had borderline
Type 2 diabetes. Then, about three years
later, my older sister, who is four years
older than me, was also diagnosed with
Type 1."
Vincent was born and raised in Suffolk
and attended the James Paget Hospital,
moving to London in 2014 to study drama
at Queen Mary University, from which she
graduated in 2017. "I do two jobs now,"
says Vincent, "I run the Roman Road
Trust, which is a an organisation focused
on regenerating Roman Road high street
in Blow and Globe Town in east London.
I'm also a drama facilitator with children
and teens, helping them to access their
creativity if they are limited by a condition.
I also do ad hoc bits and pieces such as
going into schools and teaching maths
through drama."
Top: Iulia Stefan. Middle:
Rosie Vincent. Above: Libre
Earrings by Stefan.
continued over