Hello and welcome to 'Pumptastic Scot'. We have another guest blogger today, Lin May, who is an author and diabetes advocate, dedicated to raising awareness about LADA and supporting those on their journey with diabetes. To learn more about her work visit  https://lada-diabetes.com/ and https://insulinpumplife.com/, where she blogs. Read more to learn about her story! Until next time, Alyssa In 2013, my life took an unexpected turn when I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 30. The diagnosis itself was not straightforward; initially, I was misidentified as having Type 2 diabetes ..read more

Hello and welcome to 'Pumptastic Scot'! We have a guest blogger today, Michelle, who discusses her journey of training and competing in Strong Woman, and how she juggled training whilst living with type 1 diabetes. Until next time, Alyssa x Hello everyone! What an absolute pleasure it is to be writing a guest blog for Alyssa (the Pumptastic Scot). I met Alyssa back in July 2023 when I volunteered at my first Diabetes UK Summer Camp (FYI, if you are a type 1 diabetic and looking to give back to the diabetes community, then I strongly recommend this experience – it was life changing!) Me and Al ..read more

  Earlier this year, I saw a poster for research being completed on type 1 diabetes and disordered eating, and quickly signed up to take part, as it is a topic I am passionate about and have personal experience of. I quickly realised that the research was being conducted by Aisling Pigott, someone I have been a mutual on social media for a few years. Below, Aisling discusses her career and PhD research, the rationale behind the research and talks about how to get involved in the research! “As a Paediatric Diabetes Dietitian, I absolutely love working with children, young people and their ..read more

Hello and welcome to the re-launch of Pumptastic Scot! My name is Alyssa Faulkner, I am from Scotland, and I have been using an insulin pump since 2014 for my type 1 diabetes management. I am very happy to have you here! Going forward, ‘Pumptastic Scot’ will be a hub of diabetes resources, education, and lived-experience stories, with a sprinkle of personal anecdotes. With blog posts coming at least once a month, there will be a wide variety of guest bloggers, including from professionals working within diabetes and from individuals living with diabetes, there will be a range of diabetes conte ..read more

In the Spirit of Mental Health Awareness Day, I thought I would share some of my own personal experiences with mental health. I have been diagnosed with Depression for a while now, and it affects me almost daily, however it is completely unpredictable. I could be in a room full of people I like doing an activity I love, and a wave will come over me. The urge to curl up in a ball in bed and cry and not  speak to anyone completely overwhelms me. I find it really difficult to talk about how I'm feeling to anyone. I can tell people "I suffer from mental health" but I really struggle to go into t ..read more

Hi everyone! It has been almost 3 months since I have blogged! This summer was my last summer as a student, and possibly the only time that I will get an almost 4 month break again, so I tried to fill it with volunteering. Some of the things I've been up to: Helping to organise the World Community Development Conference 2019 Volunteering on a youth work 3 week summer programme Spending 3 weeks volunteering in the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland Organising the Young, Fun and Type 1 Conference And through it all, I had Type 1 Diabetes and it's daily complications on my mind. Recentl ..read more

When someone lives with Type 1 Diabetes, they are dependent on insulin. Not having insulin can very quickly become deadly. A vial and a pen-fill of insulin.I'll give the example of insulin pumps. Insulin pumps can be unplugged for up to an hour. If you leave it off any longer, in the hours following not having any insulin, blood sugar will start to rise. The lack of insulin in the body causes something called “ketones”. Ketones are acidic molecules and having too many ketones in the body will become toxic. All of this leads to something called Diabetes Ketoacidosis (DKA), which usually develop ..read more

When I was in London in March, I sat down in King's Cross Station and pulled out my insulin pump to give myself some insulin, and I heard someone utter next to me "We're pump twins!". Sitting next to me was Caleb Britton: Caleb is a sophomore Kinesiology major at Gordon College in Wenham, MA, and is studying to be an Occupational Therapist. He loves music, writing, startup culture, and lucky for me, travel! We both happened to be in London at the same time, and Caleb bumped into me whilst travelling around Europe! I thought his expertise should be shared, I especially love his 10 handy travell ..read more