Basingstoke boy tells of living with type 1 diabetes as study begins screening condition in children
ITV News Meridian's Kara Digby reports on the impact type 1 diabetes can have
The mother of a boy from Basingstoke living with type 1 diabetes says her son's condition has changed their lives.
Taylor Faulkner was diagnosed in 2021 after he started wetting the bed a lot. At first, his parents thought it was an infection but blood tests confirmed he had T1.
His insulin is administered through a pump which has made things easier, but he still has to monitor how long he can play sports for and what he eats. This is to stop him going into a hypo (low blood sugar) or a hyper (high blood sugar).
Taylor said: "I don't really feel it anymore but sometimes I feel shaky or clammy or something like that."
Although Taylor and his family have learned to adapt and will not let it define him, they have had some challenging times.
His mum said: "He's done quite well but there are days where he does get upset. If he wants to go out and play with his friends and he's done into a hypo - he can't just go.
"He has to stop, treat the hypo, before he can go off and do anything - and that can get quite upsetting for him."
It is stories like Taylor's that has prompted a "landmark" study aimed at better understanding the condition in children.
South Central Ambulance Service is assisting in the ELSA Study by screening the risk of children developing Type 1 Diabetes.
The ambulance service is the first in the country carrying out the testing for children between the ages of 3 and 13 at GP services, schools and community centres.
Blood samples are analysed by researchers at the University of Birmingham.
Results are then sent to parents around four weeks later, with support offered if their child's result is positive.
Diabetes is caused when the immune system attacks cells in the pancreas which produce the hormone insulin. This stops it from being created, causing blood sugar levels to rise.
Research Paramedic Andy Claxton said: "It's something that normally isn't found in children until they're really poorly. So often they may be unconscious or really unwell in the back of an ambulance or sent to hospital with type 1 diabetic symptoms, that until they're actually diagnosed in hospital, can treatment start.
"Sometimes this treatment can be quite difficult and quite painful for the families to go through."
Around 400,000 people in the UK are thought to have type 1 diabetes, including around 29,000 children.
It is estimated that 3 in 1000 children are at high risk of developing it.
According to Diabetes UK, common symptoms in children include them going to the toilet a lot more to pass urine, being really thirsty and unable to quench it, feeling more tired than usual, losing weight or looking thinner, and getting more infections than usual.
Parents can order home test kits via the ELSA study website.
Over the next 18 months, SCAS will hold screenings at GP practices, schools and community centres across Hampshire and the Thames Valley.
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