ACCEPTING MYSELF

Claire Panchel, 32, from Burgess Hill, neglected her condition for years...

- KEZIA REYNOLDS

Jotting the numbers down in my diary, I knew I'd fool my doctors.

I had been for most of my teenage years.

You see, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes in 1996, when I was six years old.

And during my teen years I was rebelling against this diagnosis in every way I could.

I would go out and have fun, ignoring my diabetes, eating and drinking what I wanted, not taking my insulin - I didn't own a working glucose metre.

Taking my health into my hands like this was so dangerous, but I didn't care.

I was sick a lot of the time-I felt lethargic, confused, always needing the toilet, thirsty, and had ear and chest infections.

And looking back, I knew this was as a result of ignoring my diabetes.

"You need to get your levels under control, doctors warned.

But this didn't stop me.

Fudging the numbers in my glucose diary was just one of my ways of deceiving everyone around me.

I'm getting on with it, I'd smile at my parents, Bian, 68, and David, 69. 'I'm fine!'

As someone who'd always been independent, my parents believed that I was looking after myself.

And by the time I was at university studying business management, my diabetes was out of control.

Meeting my now-husband Rahul, 31, as I studied, I hid my rebellion from him, too.