Do you know someone that has just been diagnosed with diabetes? Here's the experiences of one teenager and how they learned to cope with being diabetic, using an insulin pump and so much more - that teenager is me!

You'd have thought that having had diabetes for almost 8 years I would have gotten to a complete and utter control, but the fact is that I haven't! I have found it really very difficult to control my sugar levels, and even harder over the last year, my first year of university.

I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 11, two weeks into my first year of secondary school. I was put onto 2 injections a day, which seemed to suit me fine at the time. (Of course at 11 there weren't really any hormones and there was a strict routine!) But after two years of 2 injections and increasingly poor health my mother decided that we needed to find a more suitable option for me. She found out about Minimed via the internet, and after some serious research and trials with our local health authorities I was given an insulin pump. I was used to it after a week, and seemed to know exactly what to do.

Over the next few years I would experience some difficult doctors advice, one of which told me that I would become ill if I didn't sort out my sugar levels. This is because of one thing that we would never have counted upon - with the freedom that is given by an insulin pump, the less you feel restricted, the less you feel like you have diabetes, and therefore the lazier you get. It seemed to be a slippery slope down (or I should say up as my blood sugar levels were rising!) into poorer health. The thing is the worse your levels become the harder it is to get them back to normal again, because your body gets used to all the extra sugar. I would love to blame lack of proper support from my local medical authorities, but really it all comes down to how much effort you put in to make you feel 100%.

Anyway, so I am currently at the stage of working out exactly what it is that I need to do in my life currently to make things work for me, but that is an entirely different, and I need to go and check my blood sugar level.

Remember, you can live with diabetes and enjoy your life.

Alissa Carter is now at University, you can read more about her at Juvenile Diabetes blog