SARAH Hampton was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 14 and initially struggled to manage the condition.
"It's very hard to control when you are younger. I didn't control it well until I was in my 20s. I didn't go out drinking but I was in a flight from fear.
"When I first got it I was told I would get all these complications and my response to that was to not control it and pretend it wasn't happening. I went hitch-hiking around Europe and was doing insulin injections in the back of lorries without any sugar. I was lucky to survive."
Ms Hampton, 53, of Attenborough, does five insulin injections and five blood tests a day. When she was pregnant with her two children she had to be taken to hospital as an emergency a number of times because her sugars would go too low as she couldn't keep food down in the first weeks.
She said coming round after her sugars had dropped too low was difficult.
"People expect you to pass out on the floor but actually I can do some really strange things even though I can't see or hear. I can muck about and swear and dance a lot."
Ms Hampton is now more able to manage her condition and thinks help for diabetes patients has improved. She praised East Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics who have frequently gone to her home when her sugars have dropped too much and helped her, rather than taking her straight to accident and emergency.
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