Our resource hub is home to a wealth of articles, stories and videos about managing and living with type 1 diabetes.
Place your order for our free information packs that support adults and children who have been recently diagnosed.
Our researchers are working on different ways to develop a cure for type 1 diabetes - from growing insulin-producing beta cells in labs to hacking the immune system.
Learn about the technologies that can deliver insulin automatically when needed. And discover the next generation of insulins that are currently being developed.
You could win a cash prize of up to £25,000 when you play the Breakthrough T1D lottery. As well as the chance to win great prizes, you’ll also help fund our research to find a cure for type 1 diabetes.
Our volunteers generously give us their time, skills and experience to tell people about our work, and to help us raise vital funds for research into better treatments and ultimately a cure for T1D.
Our ambitious new roadmap is aimed at driving significant advancements in type 1 diabetes research, treatment, and care.
Your donation helps support people living with type 1 diabetes and funds the best treatment and cure research.
We provide a wealth of information and free resources to help you support and empower your patients or students.
Take our free course for schools to learn more about supporting pupils with type 1 diabetes in educational settings.
Home > Knowledge & support > Resource hub > Three generations of family affected by type 1 diabetes
Dannie O’Connor was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 4 years old. Now at age 31 she has been living with the diagnosis for 27 years. Dannie’s daughter Sophie aged 5 and father Alistair are also living with the condition. Alistair was diagnosed 11 years after Dannie, and Sophie was diagnosed shortly after she started nursery.
Dannie’s earliest memory from being diagnosed was hiding under a hospital bed.
“I was hiding under a hospital bed with the blankets all wrapped around me and waiting for the nurses to come in and do my injection. At that time it was syringes and drawing up the insulin so the needles looked humongous. That was my first and very clearest memory of being diagnosed with type 1 at that age. But it never leaves.”
When Dannie’s dad Alistair was diagnosed later on, he already had 10-11 years experience of type 1. Dannie says:
“Anybody would think it was easier, he has got that experience. But it wasn’t. He was an adult and used to doing things in certain ways and he had to totally change again. It was different from my experience because he straight away went onto 4 insulin injections daily and carb counting. I think for him it was probably harder than for Sophie and I being diagnosed.”
When Sophie was first diagnosed, Dannie remembers sitting in the doctors surgery feeling her whole world had crumbled:
“It’s like a brick hitting you in the face. I instantly started crying and blaming myself. I was so sorry for her and the life that she was going to lead. All the emotions just run through your head in that split second but literally about 30 seconds later it was like no wait a minute we’ve got this we can do this, we’re going to be fine.”
Dannie is incredibly grateful for the progress made in technology and has found it’s much easier to have a normal life because of insulin pumps, glucose monitors and mobile apps for information sharing:
“If I had this technology, when I was diagnosed like Sophie has now I think I would have had a very different upbringing and a maybe more of a normal childhood, for Sophie being diagnosed now she is having a completely different experience to what me and my dad had – which is absolutely phenomenal and actually helps me to sleep at night knowing it’s not going to be as bad for her as it was for us.
Now looking at my dad, myself and Sophie and how strong we are as people and how it has made us grow up before a lot of our peers did and what we’ve achieved, especially Sophie in her wee tiny life, you don’t blame anybody, you don’t feel you’re being picked on, it’s just one of these unfortunate things that happened and we’ve got no control over so why dwell on what could have been and just move forward and try and make you know positives from it and live as normal and happy a life as we can.
A type 1 cure for me, my dad and Sophie and the rest of our family would mean the world.
It would just make things so much easier and just give us that bit of normality that we’ve been missing all these years. You know, it’s something we’ve never had.”
Mollie Hillis, Senior Research Communications Officer at Breakthrough T1D, shares her story of how she fell in love with science, and how her career was made possible by the women before her.
When menopause symptoms appeared, Sally Walker, 51, had already spent most of her life managing type 1 diabetes.
Living with type 1 diabetes as a busy teenager can be a constant balancing act but using a hybrid closed‑loop system has transformed how Eden Valk approaches school, exercise and even sleep. Here she tells us more about how this technology fits into her life.
We caught up with new mum Manisha to find out how hybrid closed loop technology has supported her post-partum journey.
Mark and Eilidh tell us about their daughter Charlotte’s journey with type 1 diabetes, from the first warning signs to life after diagnosis, the technology that helps her thrive, and their hopes for a cure.
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.
Amy has lived with T1D for over 30 years. Now, she’s navigating a new frontier with her daughter Imogen, embracing early detection and emerging treatments to give Imogen the best chance at a T1D-free adolescence.
