Thank you, Tom.
I've lived with type 1 diabetes for 17 years, and, as the founder of Young and T1, I also represent a group of 750 young people living with type 1 diabetes in B.C.
Despite this network, I've struggled physically over the years. In 2016, my husband came home from work to find me unconscious and non-responsive after a night of extreme illness, vomiting, dehydration and progressively increasing blood sugars. I was shocked to wake up in the hospital the next morning and learn that I had almost died.
Before automated insulin delivery, or AID, diabetes was my 24-7 second job. The mental health impact and burden of balancing high and low blood sugars was consuming. I'd become afraid to sleep when I was sick for fear of a repeat incident of 2016.
When my husband started a job with an extended health care plan covering an AID system last year, I got one right away. I couldn't believe the instantaneous difference in my quality of life. For the first time in 17 years I was able to sleep through the night, and I woke up each day with my blood sugar in range. With an A1C now deemed perfect by my endocrinologist, I've stopped worrying about diabetes complications.
My family physician, amazed at my blood work and overall physical health, gave me the go-ahead recently to start trying for my own children. I'm now able to live almost like someone has found a cure for diabetes. To think of having to go off this system should our employment status change is terrifying, and to know that there are others out there who could benefit from this but can't afford it is heartbreaking.
Thank you for your time.