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Home > Knowledge & support > Resource hub > Curve balls and silver linings: how type 1 and a love of baseball changed Mason’s life
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was five. I remember being in the hospital for five days.
I found it difficult being in hospital. Let’s just say when they tried to give me my first pen injection I ran around the room, I hid under the bed, I hid behind the table, because I did not want to get injected. When they finally gave me the injection, I thought, “Oh, that wasn’t worth all the fuss.” Now I’ve got the Omnipod and the Dexcom so unless my sugars go high and I have to replace my pod or something, that’s the only time we really give a pen injection.
With my pod, I don’t like it, but it’s much easier now because I know what it feels like. Sometimes now I even count: it’s going to be this one click and then it goes in. On the next click it’s going to shoot the canula in.
I got a Rufus when I was in the hospital. I sleep with Rufus every night. I can’t sleep without him. He makes me feel safe.
When I was in hospital, Dad brought the iPad from home and I was allowed to watch anything, and the first thing I saw was baseball. I watched a whole baseball match and ended up saying to mum and dad, “when I get out of hospital, can I play this?”
I also watched wiffleball, and that gave me my first two heroes that were diabetic. Last year, I was in a wiffle ball tournament in America, that was raising money for type 1 and I got to meet them. I played on the All-Star Team. It was magical and amazing.
In 2024, I made the Great Britain Baseball team, and we went to Slovakia to play. It was just amazing. We were playing against other countries and it just felt magical.
With baseball there’s nine innings. So, if it’s not my turn to bat, we can sort my sugars out. So it works well that way.
When I went to Slovakia, it was my first time flying without my mum and dad, they were on a different flight from the team and coaches. I hate airports. Whenever I go through security, I get pulled over because of my diabetes stuff, they think I’m wearing like a bomb on me or something. One of the kids made me laugh because afterwards he said, “we thought you were getting arrested.”
This summer, I got to talk at the Breakthrough T1D One Walk in London. I handed out medals, though I had to untangle them all first. It was really special meeting other people with type 1. Knowing that I’m not the only person.
One kid came up to me and said they’d seen me on social media and he was like, “thank you for showing me that I’m not alone”. He said how much I inspired him, so it was really special. I was already really happy being there, and it just warmed my heart and made my day.
If I could say one thing to kids who are newly diagnosed, it would be: know that you’re not alone and there’s many people out there to help you. If you want to play sport, do it. Type 1 doesn’t stop you from playing. It doesn’t stop you from anything. When I grow up, I want to play in the Major League Baseball in America. I’ll keep doing things for Breakthrough T1D too. A cure for type 1 would be amazing. It would mean no more injections, no more carb counting, no more pods, no more Dexcoms.
Get information and support about managing type 1 diabetes.
Learn about how to manage type 1 around doing your favourite sports and physical activity.
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I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1970, when I was 27. I became very unwell and weak; I wasn’t particularly thirsty, which is the first thing everybody assumes. I felt similar to when I had had glandular fever in 1965.
After 40 years with type 1 diabetes, JP Devlin shares how starting a hybrid closed loop system has transformed his time in range.
Our research is improving the lives of people with type 1 and making strides towards a cure. We’ll keep pushing until we make type 1 diabetes a thing of the past.
