FOUR Bromsgrove children – all with type one diabetes – have teamed up to raise awareness and boost funds for their treatment centre.
Sisters, Zoe, 7, and Rose, 10, and their friends Bonnie and Josh receive treatment from the Worcestershire Acute Hospital’s Trust Paediatric Diabetes Team, often based at the Alexandra in Redditch.
Type one diabetes is a condition which affects the pancreas’ ability to produce insulin, a hormone which is vital in your body’s ability to break down sugars, therefore without it your body cannot regulate its own blood glucose levels.
Day to day, the children wear devices which monitor their blood glucose levels very closely whilst taking regular insulin via injections or more modern pumps.
The children, who have become close after bonding over a shared experience living with the condition, have so far raised £715 during Diabetes Awareness Month (November) – smashing their initial £100 target.
All of the funds will be used to provide new equipment and day trips for children at the centre.
Simon Williams, Zoe and Rose’s dad told the Standard: “We’re hugely proud, it was Zoe’s idea. She wanted to raise the money.
“We’re overwhelmed and grateful for all of the donations. I just can’t believe it really.
“It can be pretty difficult for us and the kids, it involves constantly monitoring their sugars.
“Without the unit and the technology it wouldn’t be possible.”
They intend to keep up the hard work by hosting a cupcake sale, a dance for 100 children with diabetes in Bromsgrove and Redditch and lots of physical challenges including scoring goals, squats, reading books, and riding their bikes.
The cupcake sale will be hosted at Catshill First School, where Zoe, Bonnie and Josh are taught – on November 24 at the end of the school day. Rose is taught at Catshill Middle School.
Visit www.justgiving.com/page/worcesterpaediatricdiabetes to donate.
