Family’s run has special meaning

HAPPY family . . . Martin, Rachel, Kate and Sharon Emmott on a family holiday

AN OLDHAM family affected by diabetes is gearing up for its third BUPA Great Manchester Run for Diabetes UK.

Sharon Emmott (40) and her husband Martin (44), from Chadderton, have been in training for Sunday’s 10k run while daughters Rachel (11) and Kate (8) will be taking part in tomorrow’s mini and junior Great Manchester Run.

Mr and Mrs Emmott agree the challenge of a 10k run is nothing compared to the challenge of bringing up a daughter with Type 1 diabetes.

Rachel was diagnosed the condition a few days short of her fourth birthday.

Type 1 diabetes develops if the body is unable to produce any insulin.

This type of diabetes usually appears before the age of 40, is the least common of the two main types and accounts for around 10 per cent of all people with diabetes.

It is not known why it develops and it is not connected with being overweight, but people with Type 1 diabetes have to inject themselves with insulin several times a day to stay alive.

There are 20,000 children in the UK under the age of 15 with Type 1 diabetes, with an estimated 2,400 in the North-West. Mrs Emmott noticed Rachel was drinking excessive amounts of juice that summer but originally thought nothing of it.

She said: “I then began to notice her clothes were getting loose and baggy and she wasn’t putting weight on, even though she was getting taller.

“She then began to develop dark rings around her eyes and just generally looked ill.

“My husband thought the symptoms looked a lot like diabetes but I dismissed that on the basis that I thought only old people get it.”

After discovering dangerously high amounts of glucose in Rachel’s urine, their family GP told Sharon to take Rachel to hospital immediately where she was diagnosed.

Mrs Emmott said: “That’s when it hit me.

“I sat there looking at my little girl who was just three years old.

“She clung to me scared and bewildered, obviously wondering why all these strange people were crowding round her trying to stick needles into her.

“All I could think was ‘Why?”

Mrs Emmott said the family had to take each day at a time.

Starting at St Matthews C of E Infant School was a daunting experience but both the primary, as well as Chadderton Hall Junior School where Rachel progressed to, were very supportive. The family’s experiences of diabetes have turned them into charity champions, raising thousands of pounds for the organisation.

There are currently around 80 children in the Oldham area with Type 1 diabetes, attending 30 schools between them..

She added: “If all of those 80 children decided to run the Great Manchester junior or mini runs and gather their families and schoolmates to put teams together, that would lead to a vast amount of money being raised for their charity.”

To sponsor the Emmott family visit www.justgiving.com/emmottfamily or telephone Diabetes North West 01925 653 281 or email n.west@diabetes.org.uk