A CO Antrim schoolgirl who struggled to cope with her diabetes diagnosis is encouraging others to access a wellbeing programme that she believes helped transform her life.
Lavena McStocker (14) from Moneyglass has described how her emotional health suffered after she was told she had Type 1 diabetes when she was eight.
She said she found it difficult to accept how the diagnosis impacted on her everyday life.
"From the very start of my diagnosis I completely ignored it - I didn’t want to deal with it," she said.
"I really put my head in the sand over it and didn’t talk to anyone about it. I didn’t want people to know about it."
Type 1 diabetes is a condition where blood glucose (sugar) level is too high as the body cannot make a hormone called insulin. Lavena manages her diabetes through an insulin pump that injects insulin into her body numerous times a day.
The teenager said it was joining the youth project 'Our Lives, Our Voices', run by charity Diabetes UK NI, that turned out to be the "game-changer" that she needed.
The programme offers support to young people with type 1 diabetes as research has found a lack of information and peer support has led to this age group being three times more likely to have psychological problems than those without the condition.
"I’d say I was completely burned out from my diagnosis until the day I joined Our Lives, Our Voices," said Lavena.
"I was so negative about my diabetes. I thought 'this has ruined my life completely'.
"I didn’t want to spend any more time talking about my diabetes when I lived with it.
"That’s why I was a bit anxious about joining the project, but it wasn’t like talking to medical professionals, who would tell me were I was going wrong with my diabetes, it was a friendly point of view of how to cope with things for them to get better."
Lavena credits her growth in confidence to her involvement in the programme and has gone from not talking about her diabetes to sharing her experience to over 100 student nurses.
"Adults don’t have the same perspective as a young person," she said.
"They don’t necessarily know where they are coming from or how they are feeling.
"So, to have young people helping design the Wellbeing programme I thought was a great idea. It is designed by young people for young people so it’s dealing with issues that concern them.
"It has helped me improve my mental health and helps in the way you cope with your diabetes.
"When you live with diabetes it has such an impact on your mental wellbeing, but it is not talked about enough. I still think there is a lot of stigma still surrounding that aspect of diabetes.
"I hope to help break down that stigma."
For information about the Wellbeing programme, visit https://bit.ly/3qW3YLa
