Vince Harder and Abby Lee Harder’s new song – ‘Overwhelmed’ – is their most personal yet, and its video, produced in partnership with Diabetes NZ, is a heartfelt plea for continuous glucose monitors to be funded.

Proceeds from listens and downloads of the song go to Diabetes NZ. Help us continue to raise awareness for everyone living with diabetes in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Vince and Abby vividly remember their daughter Presley’s diagnosis with type 1 diabetes last year. Presley, who was 17 months old, had a high fever and vomiting, but none of the doctors the couple took her to considered it might be diabetes.

Abby says, ‘They just thought she had a gastro bug. We even got a urine test done, and they noticed high glucose in the urine, but said it could be a side effect of the bug. We kept getting sent home and told to monitor her, and her symptoms just kept getting worse.

A trip to A & E, an ambulance to Waitākere hospital and two weeks in Starship marked the beginning of a new life with a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes.

Their new life as type 1 parents inspired Vince and Abby to write a song about parents and children; ‘Overwhelmed’ is the third song they have released together.

When it came to creating the video for ‘Overwhelmed’, the Harders wanted to use it to raise awareness about type 1 diabetes generally, as well as about how life changing continuous glucose monitors can be for those living with type 1 and their families, and how unfair it is that many can’t afford them.

‘CGMs were life changing for us,’ says Abby. ‘So we’ll do what we can.”

Growing up with Type 1

For Presley and Jaylen-Blaze, diagnosed as toddlers, diabetes is all they have ever known. For Eden, diagnosed when she was eight, her life will now always include diabetes.

Jaylen-Blaze Daane, 11

Eden Iona, 11

Life as a Type 1 parent

Toni Daane, mum of Jaylen-Blaze

Tasi Iona, mum of Eden

Vince and Abby Lee Harder, parents to Presley