Francis: I've done around 40,000 tests over 27 years

Technically I am classified as Type 2 but behave like Type 1 and for that reason I am on the DAFNE programme and have been for some years – as has also been the need for insulin injections.

I would have preferred to have the automatic products, but they are expensive, and I have to rely on the manual products and whilst I do maintain good control, I do have hypos from time to time. In terms of statistics, I have a minimum of 4 tests per day and was diagnosed in 1995. This means that I have had diabetes for at least 27 years and over that time would have used 39,312 Caresens test strips – not allowing for the occasions when the tests had to be aborted and / or reconfirmed because I did not believe the result. Thus, the number would be around the 40,000 mark.

I hope this may be of some help to your campaign.