I will have had type 1 diabetes for 50 years in May 2022 and I have seen many changes in diabetes healthcare over that time. I remember when finger pricks first became available and they seemed like a blessing then to replace urine tests, which as a young person, I hated and avoided.

My fingers suffer terribly and today I hate finger pricks too. As a younger person I gave myself 12 months off finger pricks and winged it, intending to ‘take it as it comes’. Of course, my health results suffered and were oddly different to earlier results. Very often I had estimated high blood sugar and might wing an estimated correction (large, quick fix) and consequently went hypo. I remained determined to manage without finger pricks. However, eventually I had to attend a GP appointment and of course my HbA1c tests didn’t lie. Eventually I was shocked into more finger pricks through a sense of failure and threat of a shorter life span.

I love the glucose monitors and there’s absolutely no comparison with finger pricks; the results speak for themselves and knowing the direction of blood sugar travel is fabulous.

However, I see them as a luxury item and use one only in exceptional circumstances. Their use when dining out, travelling and at work are mind-blowingly effective. Why shouldn’t we all have glucose monitors fully funded by PHARMAC?

Glucose monitors shouldn’t need to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Just imagine the lifetime health benefits for every type 1 person when they are funded. Knowledge is health power. Having blood sugar results constantly, without finger pricks, would pay off hugely for the national cost of healthcare support throughout our lives and particularly in our later years.

I have survived only because I am intelligent, competitive, independent, resilient and love a challenge. Living with type 1 is not easy in any sense. Many of us are looking after ourselves under the radar and in a way that no one else could even imagine. We deserve to have the best tools and care available in 2022 and those tools, such as glucose monitors, should not be indirectly income tested. Anyone can become type 1. While we might like to think otherwise, we are not especially chosen. Each and every one of us deserves the best and equal care as a New Zealander.