30
NEWS
Looking ahead
Davies peppered his talk with a
range of thoughts. "For starters," he
said, "Type 1 diabetes is unique. We
count our carbs, judge our doses and
self-medicate as well as self-check
with blood tests. It's been estimated
that those living with it make an
additional 180 extra decisions per
day. It is a full-time job in itself. We
should never forget that insulin can
in fact be a deadly drug. And while
most healthcare professionals know
the theory of how diabetes ought
to be controlled, it's different when
you're actually living with it day-today.
Also, the press and the media
often get it so wrong, which is really
frustating. Looking back, the dawn
of home blood testing was probably
the most dramatic change, and
that happened in the 1980s. I was
diagnosed in 1956 and it took until
about 1986 to have self-monitoring of
blood glucose (SMBG)."
He also noted that he did his
first several decades living with
the condition not knowing anyone
else with the condition. He met his
first other Type 1 diabetic doing the
Kilimanjaro Challenge and quipped, "I
know hundreds now."
To read more about this fund- and
awareness-raising trek, see p.32.
TOP: Pete Davies at the summit of Kilimanjaro. ABOVE: Davies trekking in Peru.
LEFT Pete Davies parents in the mid-80s. BELOW: An early urine glucose testing kit.