November 14th was designated World Diabetes Day. 22-year-old Maria Koumis from Sotira, who was diagnosed with type 7 diabetes at the age of 1, shares her experience with Famagusta News.
22-year-old Maria confesses that diabetes changed her life quite a bit when she was a teenager.
"Diabetes is like a roller coaster, it has its highs (hyperglycemia) and its lows (hypoglycemia). In the beginning I didn't want it to "see" that I have diabetes. "Everyone was asking me, 'what are you wearing?' "What is diabetes?" "Did you eat a lot of sweets for that too?"
Maria describes that she cannot live a second without the machine since it protects her and helps her to save herself from severe hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia. "What I wear on my arm and the bike is my electronic pancreas, my pump, constantly vibrating to protect me."
The 22-year-old Maria attracted attention many times.
She says that "there are people around me who look at me strangely and treat me differently but it doesn't affect me anymore because I have learned these almost 16 years of living with him, but thanks to my other half, my partner who has known all these years to manage diabetes because he also learned to live with it.
Maria Koumi sends her own message on the occasion of World Diabetes Day.
“All these injections and pumps turn the wounds and dots into a representation of my life. This is my life and it's beautiful. Like me, like you and like all these beautiful marks on me that make me who I am. So I won't hide."
Famagusta News