‘We’re doing this for our hero Callum’

When Hollie Harris noticed that her eight year-old son Callum was starting to drink a lot more, her motherly instinct kicked in.

Young Callum, a healthy boy that was full of life, was visiting the toilet more, and then when his weight started to drop, she knew something wasn’t right.

“He was always drinking and weeing a lot and then we noticed he lost weight, and we realised this isn’t right and rang the doctors,” said Hollie.

Little did she know then that the Guilsfield family’s life, and particularly Callum’s, now 9, was about to change forever in January this year.

“He was rushed to Telford Hospital!” she recalls. “He was tested and then we were told that he had type 1 diabetes.”

Type 1 diabetes means Callum’s blood sugar is too high because the body can’t make a hormone called insulin. Fewer than one in 10 people in the UK who have diabetes have type 1 diabetes and there is nothing you can do to prevent yourself or others developing it.

Although it’s often diagnosed in childhood, people can develop type 1 diabetes at any age.

“It has had a massive impact on us as a family, but obviously more so for Callum,” said Hollie, who is organising a big fundraiser for Diabetes UK this Friday night in Welshpool Town Hall.

“Everything he eats has to be weighed and measured to work out the carbs for the amount of insulin he has. He has to inject for every meal and snack he has, unless it’s eggs, meat, cheese and vegetables.

“When he is out and about he keeps a close eye on his bloods as it can drop or go high at any time.”

Simply put, Hollie said that “every night we have to inject insulin into Callum to keep our little man alive”.

“He is my hero and a superstar, and we have to live with this for the rest of our lives,” she said. “He has a sensor on his arm, which updates every five minutes as to what his bloods are as he isn’t aware when low or high which is very dangerous.

“We hope to have an insulin pump fitted on Callum soon. He is on the waiting list and this will save the injection as a tube will drip insulin into his stomach to keep his sugars at a good level.”

Hollie said that the NHS has been “excellent”, but the family has to travel to Shrewsbury for any treatment, as there isn’t a single paediatric diabetes team in the whole of Powys.

She considers themselves lucky as “we caught it just in time” before Callum fell into Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA), which is a serious complication of diabetes that can be life-threatening.

And she has some sobering advice for what to look out for:

“If anyone has concerns about diabetes in their child, these are the things to look out for, called the 4 T’s: Thirst, Toilet, Tired, Thinner. Any concern, called the doctors ASAP,” she said.

This weekend’s big fundraiser

Friday night’s Charity Bingo night will be held in the Town Hall from 6pm with eyes down at 7pm.

It promises to be a fantastic night with the £15 entry (£8 children) including bingo cards, raffle and refreshments.

The money raised will go to Diabetes UK and Children’s T1 Diabetes Family Group, a local charity that organises days out and gatherings for children with type 1 in and around the Shropshire/Powys borders.

PICTURES: Callum with mum and dad, Hollie and Allan Harris, and a second showing the wider family.