diabetes goes DIGITAL

Doctors handed Claire Bickel a diabetes diagnosis the day before her fifth birthday. Her mum, Francesca, learned to stick Claire’s finger to check her BGLs, and began monitoring her levels eight to 10 times daily. As a newly diagnosed kindergartener, Claire headed to school each day with a juice box in her backpack, just in case her BGLs dropped at school. That was more than a decade ago; Claire is now a high school student.

“In 2007, there was no way [for me] to know what her levels were [at school], nothing that could tell [me] she was trending down. I had to put all my faith into a five-year-old recognising she didn’t feel right and knowing she could sip on some juice if she didn’t feel well,” says Francesca.

Diabetes has always