
'You can still do what you want to': Theresa May on how diabetes has changed her life
When she came down with a heavy cold in November 2012, former Home Secretary and Prime Minister Theresa May’s first thought was that she should get it checked out by her GP.
Her husband had just had a similar cold that had developed into bronchitis, so it made sense for her to get it looked at before the same thing happened to her. But she had no idea that this was a visit to the GP that would change her life forever.
While she was there, she mentioned to her GP that she had recently lost a lot of weight, though she hadn’t thought much about it and had put it down to 'dashing about' in her role as Home Secretary. But the GP decided to do a blood test anyway. Suddenly, she was being told that she had diabetes.
The news came as a shock, though looking back she realises she had some of the classic symptoms. As well as the weight loss, she was drinking more water than usual and making more frequent trips to the bathroom. But, it wasn’t something she thought about much at the time.
“That summer was the Olympics, so life was in a different order,” she says. “There was a lot more going on, so I didn’t really notice.”
She was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, but, when the medication didn’t work she went for further tests and, eventually, the news came back that she had Type 1.
The more people can see that people with diabetes can lead a normal life doing the sort of things that other people do, the easier it is for those who are diagnosed with it to deal with it
“My very first reaction was that it’s impossible because at my age you don’t get it,” she says,
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