My Story

Hello my name is Steve Wetton, on the 16th of January 2019 5 days after my beautiful little princesses first birthday Tahlia was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Our family’s world was turned upside down! Not knowing anything about this disease, as let’s face it you don’t until you need to know...

You think it’s something you’ve done; the foods you’ve given them, what tiff eat when she was pregnant etc. etc but the truth is none of this is why. We just simply don't know why....

I don’t think I’ve had a proper night’s sleep since that day, 1 because she is so young and unable to assist herself and 2 she can’t tell you how she’s feeling etc.

Even though Tahlia has some pretty cool technology to assist with her condition this it’s such a hard disease to get your head round!

She currently has a monitoring device the size of a kinder egg on 1 bum cheek that lets us know what her blood sugar levels are.

Tahlia also has another device like a mini cassette player linked to a cannula in the other bum cheek.

We manually put in the amount of carbohydrates she is going to have, it then administers the correct insulin via a pump to counter her blood glucose levels. (I’ve attached an image from the device showing todays 19.11.19 blood sugar levels throughout the day she a little under the weather so it’s harder to control than usual, I guess this is because her body decides to fight the infection opposed to the BG levels)

although these pieces of equipment take away some of the guess work and provide information it’s still frightening, what if she has a hypo and I don’t wake up to feed her?

What if she has a fit and dies in the night? All of these things go through your head nightly! What if her blood sugar levels are too high for too long, how will it affect her in later life BLIND?? so on and so on.

She's is so dinky and can’t tell me and her mum how she really feels just yet, whenever we meet an adult with type 1 were always intrigued to find out what it feels like and to be honest it sound terrible!! For that to happen to such a small person, my small person it breaks my heart!

We as "normal" people take for granted our bodies and minds producing insulin when we smell food or get ready for dinner.

any way I’m waffling, so the reason I’ve set this page up is that exactly 1 year on from Tahlia being diagnosed I’m going to be swimming the length of the channel 21 miles to be exact and I plan on doing this all in 1 go!!!

Tahlia was 1 of the youngest children to be effected by type 1 that pilgrim hospital was aware of and their support was outstanding!!!

Myself and tiff have a great relationship and family to support us but I really feel for others that don’t have this support.

JDRF are constantly looking at ways to improve the lives of people with type 1 and also studying to eradicate this disease once and for all and they are making great headway too!

Any donation you give will go toward this vital research into this shitty disease!

A few pointers to consider when donating:

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT ARE:

MY TARGET IS £10,000!!

THIS IS FOR MY BEAUTFUL DAUGHTER & RESEARCH INTO BEATING TYPE 1.

IM OUT OF SHAPE

I HATE SWIMMING

I TEND TO SINK

I’VE NEVER SWAM MORE THAN 10 LENGTHS

I’VE CURRENTLY HAD NO TRAINING

I’M WELL OUT OF SHAPE

I REALLY HATE SWIMMING

21 MILES IS A BLOODY LONG WAY.

I PLAN TO DO IT IN A 24 HOUR STINT

THANK YOU FOR READING

THE VENUE IS CURRENTLY BEING SEEKED SO STAY TUNED FOR THAT!