Help Children Living With Type 1
Donation protected
Hello! We are fundraising to provide blood monitoring systems to 3 children with Type 1 Diabetes to help prevent life threatening highs and lows and prevent long term complications from having this awful condition.
One of these kids is our son. He is completely hypo unaware and can go dangerously low without any prior warning and it happens so quickly that there is a high chance he wouldn't have any time to help himself before losing consciousness - terrifying as I'm sure you can imagine. There are so many children in this city alone living with T1 and receive no funding for these incredible systems! The diabetic team at Sick Kids hospital have said they are fantastic and so beneficial for kids - they just don't have the funding to provide them ! For this reason we want to raise money to help some of these children to have the same system and hopefully keep them safer as they grow up and try to live as "normal" a life as possible! Hopefully we can continue to fundraise and continue to help young children living with this life threatening condition!
Ok so let me explain! Type 1 is not caused by diet as is commonly mistaken -but it is an autoimmune condition where the body attacks the healthy pancreas cells which produce insulin. The body can no longer produce insulin and dangerously high levels of blood glucose occur which are life threatening if left untreated!
Our brave lad was diagnosed at 9 and has been a trouper with 6 daily injections, along with around 8 daily finger pricks to test his sugar levels in his blood. And thats without the added tests when he has multiple hypos, extra exercise or sickness! As you can imagine it takes it toll on them! Just over a year in and he's having what's called burnout. He is sadly realising this is a lifelong condition and he is really struggling with it on a daily basis. In his words, he wants to be " normal" again. We of course can't take it away from him or I would have taken it the minute he was diagnosed!
We are fundraising for CGM systems which stand for Continuous Glucose Monitoring systems. Instead of the 8 finger pricks per day, the patient wears a sensor for around a week at a time and it scans the blood levels at regular intervals so takes away the need for as many finger pricks - you only need to calibrate it to keep it correct!
Even better, it sends signals and updates to a smartphone device in order to store the results and look at the patterns for the ever changing levels and ratios due to so many contributing factors.
These systems can be used at any age and is especially recommended for patients who are struggling with the constant needles, with the whole process and also allow the parents to fully monitor the levels regardless of wgere the child is at that moment. It provides real time results, high or low warning alarms to help you get them help quicker and allows the child to be more like a child again and reduce the need for so many needles! It is proven to prevent dangerous highs and lows and also allows a peace of mind for the parents who can continuously monitor their child's sugar levels, no matter whether they are at are school, playing sports or other activities!
These systems cost around £4000 - 5000 to set up and run the system for 1 year. After the initial cost, it costs on average £3000 to fund this system for each year for 1 person as a minimum - It can cost more depending on length of time sensors work for!
We are looking to provide 3 families with enough money to fund this for 1 year. Of course we would love to smash our target and help more families for much longer than 1 year but it's definately a big start!
These are also great to give older kids the freedom to maybe go out to play or go to a friends house without the parents being sick with worry that they are not in control of such a dangerous condition. Blood glucose which is too high, can cause a condition called DKA which is when the body produces acid and organs start to shut down - resulting in death if untreated. Subsequently blood glucose which is too low, can cause hypoglycaemia which lead to unconsciousness, coma and even death if left untreated. It's a life threatening condition and if we can help kids to stay safe and use these systems - it's a small step in the right direction. Hopefully they will one day be available on the NHS and every child will be able to have one.
Thank you for reading and if you can spare a £ or two, we would be very grateful!
One of these kids is our son. He is completely hypo unaware and can go dangerously low without any prior warning and it happens so quickly that there is a high chance he wouldn't have any time to help himself before losing consciousness - terrifying as I'm sure you can imagine. There are so many children in this city alone living with T1 and receive no funding for these incredible systems! The diabetic team at Sick Kids hospital have said they are fantastic and so beneficial for kids - they just don't have the funding to provide them ! For this reason we want to raise money to help some of these children to have the same system and hopefully keep them safer as they grow up and try to live as "normal" a life as possible! Hopefully we can continue to fundraise and continue to help young children living with this life threatening condition!
Ok so let me explain! Type 1 is not caused by diet as is commonly mistaken -but it is an autoimmune condition where the body attacks the healthy pancreas cells which produce insulin. The body can no longer produce insulin and dangerously high levels of blood glucose occur which are life threatening if left untreated!
Our brave lad was diagnosed at 9 and has been a trouper with 6 daily injections, along with around 8 daily finger pricks to test his sugar levels in his blood. And thats without the added tests when he has multiple hypos, extra exercise or sickness! As you can imagine it takes it toll on them! Just over a year in and he's having what's called burnout. He is sadly realising this is a lifelong condition and he is really struggling with it on a daily basis. In his words, he wants to be " normal" again. We of course can't take it away from him or I would have taken it the minute he was diagnosed!
We are fundraising for CGM systems which stand for Continuous Glucose Monitoring systems. Instead of the 8 finger pricks per day, the patient wears a sensor for around a week at a time and it scans the blood levels at regular intervals so takes away the need for as many finger pricks - you only need to calibrate it to keep it correct!
Even better, it sends signals and updates to a smartphone device in order to store the results and look at the patterns for the ever changing levels and ratios due to so many contributing factors.
These systems can be used at any age and is especially recommended for patients who are struggling with the constant needles, with the whole process and also allow the parents to fully monitor the levels regardless of wgere the child is at that moment. It provides real time results, high or low warning alarms to help you get them help quicker and allows the child to be more like a child again and reduce the need for so many needles! It is proven to prevent dangerous highs and lows and also allows a peace of mind for the parents who can continuously monitor their child's sugar levels, no matter whether they are at are school, playing sports or other activities!
These systems cost around £4000 - 5000 to set up and run the system for 1 year. After the initial cost, it costs on average £3000 to fund this system for each year for 1 person as a minimum - It can cost more depending on length of time sensors work for!
We are looking to provide 3 families with enough money to fund this for 1 year. Of course we would love to smash our target and help more families for much longer than 1 year but it's definately a big start!
These are also great to give older kids the freedom to maybe go out to play or go to a friends house without the parents being sick with worry that they are not in control of such a dangerous condition. Blood glucose which is too high, can cause a condition called DKA which is when the body produces acid and organs start to shut down - resulting in death if untreated. Subsequently blood glucose which is too low, can cause hypoglycaemia which lead to unconsciousness, coma and even death if left untreated. It's a life threatening condition and if we can help kids to stay safe and use these systems - it's a small step in the right direction. Hopefully they will one day be available on the NHS and every child will be able to have one.
Thank you for reading and if you can spare a £ or two, we would be very grateful!
Organizer
Gemma Calder
Organizer
