Diabetes Youth
SUCCEEDING WITH DIABETES As applications open for the 2022 John McLaren Youth Awards, we celebrate our three amazing 2021 winners and everything they continue to achieve alongside managing type 1 diabetes.
WILLIAM ROBERTSON – SPORTS AWARD
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t just 16 years old, Southlander William Robertson has a string of local and national athletics successes to his name. William says, ‘I was very shy starting athletics and nervous that I wouldn’t be able to trust my body because of type 1. ‘There’s a lot you don’t know when you go to events, like can I take my bag to the track? Where do they put it? How long between getting called and actually starting a race? What if there’s a delay?’ While these questions don’t matter much to most competitors, for someone with type 1, they can be crucial. ‘I also found out, when I went to do my first big race at the 2019 Colgate South Island Games, that bad nerves feel like a very bad low. I got scared and stumbled in the starting blocks and got disqualified. That was the 200 metres. ‘Even though I was nearly crying, I realised I had to ignore that mishap and try again the next day. I went home to the motel and searched up all the rules so I knew everything I could.’ He was using a pin pricker to test his blood sugar at that time and says, ‘I also knew I had to trust that my last pin-prick test before the race was right. The next day, I won the 100 metres race and also got third in the long jump, which I didn’t expect.’
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DIABETES WELLNESS | Spring 2022
MEETING EVERY CHALLENGE – WITH SUPPORT
Since that first big competition, he’s continued to persevere and has had some exciting wins. He came third in the 100 metres at the 2020 NZ Secondary Schools Athletics Championships – the biggest event of the athletics season for under 18s. In 2021, he won the junior 100 metres and long jump at the South Island Secondary Schools Athletics Championships and got second in triple jump. He’s broken Southland records for his year group in 100 metres, 200 metres, and triple jump and was part of an under 18 relay team that broke the Southland record in 2021. The 200 metres record was 34 years old. There are still challenges. ‘In early 2020, the Southland Secondary Schools Athletics was at the same time as school camp, so I came home from camp a day early. I was so tired. ‘The morning of the competition, I got there and felt sick, like vomiting. I realised that I forgot my insulin injection with breakfast. ‘I just wanted to go home and get in bed. But I tried to keep thinking how I’d feel later when the insulin was working. I just kept that in my mind and had lots of water. It was hard, but I started getting better right at the start of my triple jump.’
To William’s surprise, he won. ‘I learnt so much about double checking things when I’m tired but also that, when something like that happens, I can’t give up. I just have to try and fix it and think past feeling sick.’ His parents have consistently supported him, and one of them always travels with him to competitions. William says he’s also lucky with his coach. ‘He knows I’ll do my best and trusts that I’m not slacking off if I have to have breaks, or if I do a bit less some days when my blood sugars aren’t behaving.’ Now that William has a Dexcom CGM, his diabetes is a lot more manageable, allowing him to focus even harder on his sport. He can see his blood sugar levels at a glance and is alerted if he’s going high or low. ‘I think that to do well in sports is a very hard thing – but to do that with type 1 diabetes makes it more complicated. But it’s not impossible. I think it’s mind over matter – and just maths if you want it to be. ‘I want to show other young people that type 1 doesn’t mean you can’t do physically challenging things. You can be nervous at the start,and it might go a bit wrong, but if you learn and try again it will work out.’
