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Team player
Initially sceptical about the power of a pump,
Marcus Bosano explains how he ended up moving to
Omnipod® and not looking back.
Marcus Bosano is 51
and was diagnosed
with Type 1 diabetes
at the age of 30 on 10
September 2001. This was, as he
describes it, "the day before the
world changed". It was around the
same time as the attack on the Twin
Towers in New York City (9/11). That's
quite a marker for such a deeply
personal event.
Bosano lived in Bristol, where he
got married in 1999. He had a son the
same year, who was only about oneand-a-half years
old when Bosano
was diagnosed. He recalls, "Looking
back, I did have some symptoms, but
my lifestyle masked them. Although I
lived in Bristol, I worked in Bath and I
cycled there, which is 25 to 30 miles
a day. In addition, I often did a run at
lunchtime, as well as playing football
a couple of times a week after work.
I was very fit but had recurring bouts
of thrush, and I was losing weight. I
remember that I was eating like there
was no tomorrow. I put the weight
loss down to all my exercise, but I
ended up losing nearly three stone in
just a few months."
The rest of that summer he
remained extremely thirsty and was
often up in the night going to the
toilet and feeling tired all the time.
He says, "One weekend we were
due to go into town. I woke up and
I felt bone dry - I just couldn't drink
enough to cut through the frantic
thirst I had. We drove for 15 minutes,
but by then I was incredibly thirsty
again. When we got home later that
day, I got on the computer, put in the
symptoms, and it came up clearly as
Type 1 diabetes. I'd met people with
Type 1 diabetes but didn't understand
it much. I made an appointment with
my local GP who asked the surgery's
nurse to take me for a quick blood
test. My wife stayed in the room with
the doctor while I went for the blood
test. My test result was given to the
GP while my wife was in the room, I
was still in the waiting room, and she
came out and told me. I accepted the
diagnosis quickly - I decided to just
get on with it."
Team work
Initially, Bosano was given dietary
advice such as, 'don't eat strawberries
they are very sweet.' He says, "Now I
know that's not even true."
He subsequently managed his
diabetes for almost two decades on
multiple daily insulin injections (MDI).
When Bosano and his family decided
to move to Cheltenham, he was
referred to the local diabetes team.
"The team was - and is - amazing.
They really got to know me and
advocated for me when I wanted to
explore pump therapy. It was only on
reflection that I see how important
that was."
"The team talked about pump
therapy, but I was initially resistant. I
couldn't see how it would fit with my