What support did you have available to you and where did you seek information about diabetes?

For the first 15, 16 years, whatever, I didn't seek any support at all other than that that was coming my way sort of professionally, so to speak. I cannot overstate the influence of the online community. I would not be here talking to you today and the other people spoken to this morning. And many, many people have said that the Type 1 community, particularly in the UK actually, has been a real sort of game changer and actually, dare I say, a world leader in terms of sharing information, sharing support, and intriguingly in bringing healthcare professionals on board in it as well. So the so-called GB doc is a very real thing and it sounds terribly cheesy to say it but some of my best friends are people with type 1 diabetes and that is the only reason I know them and what's even nicer is that now that they've become my best friends. We almost never talk about diabetes unless we have to. They're just people that I've become friends with, you know, on the basis of that. And by definition, they're a random selection of people. They're of all ages, they're male and female, they're different walks of life, different social classes, whatever. So it's quite a nice club to belong to, even if you don't want I want to join it. So yeah... and you know, at that point, I sometimes come dangerously close to saying it's been a good thing. There's no way I can say, I can really claim that but I do now sometimes think, okay... I did what I was going to do. I was a teacher and I retired at 60 which is a standard age for giving up teaching. I'm now sitting here at home talking to you about diabetes, what would I be doing if I wasn't doing this? I've got lots of other stuff, you know, I'm making myself busy with this, that and the other. But it's, yeah, it's been a really big deal so I certainly couldn't possibly overstate the support that I've had from other people.