Forging connections, lifting others

Laura Snowden is passionate about supporting young people who, like her, have diabetes. As our country’s newest IDF Young Leader, she has an exciting project planned.

Earlier this year, we announced Laura had been chosen as Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2022–2024 representative on the Young Leaders in Diabetes Programme – run by the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF).

The programme sees representatives from 65 countries come together – in person and online – to receive ‘continuous education throughout a threeyear period to empower them and help them become efficient advocates for themselves and others living with diabetes’.

Over that time, each representative works on a diabetes-related project.

Laura’s selection was a two-step process – she applied to Diabetes NZ to become New Zealand’s candidate for the programme then to the IDF to be accepted on to it. Since that acceptance, she’s partnered with Diabetes NZ to develop and submit her project proposal – a national young leaders programme for diabetes youth in Aotearoa.

A RAPID DIAGNOSIS

Laura’s type 1 diabetes journey began when she was diagnosed at eight years old in the UK, where her family lived at the time.

Her father had been diagnosed two years earlier, in his 30s.

Laura says, ‘Luckily, I didn't get too sick because my mum knew the symptoms. I was drinking lots and peeing lots, and I was tired. Mum took me to the GP and said, “I think she might have diabetes – can you please test her?” I got diagnosed the same day. It all happened very fast.’

Her family moved to New Zealand when she was 17. ‘I didn’t have many friends here, and I thought, I’ll find people with diabetes because we have something in common to connect over.’

She began volunteering to help with diabetes youth camps in Auckland, and her life course changed. At 24, she’s been volunteering for seven years now, becoming a Group Leader, as well as a member of the Diabetes NZ Auckland Youth committee.

She loves seeing how empowering the camps are. ‘The kids are really excited to see older people with diabetes. Some of them feel that, at school, they’re the odd kid. They say, “I'm the weird kid that gets picked on because I have to do injections.” Apparently kids aren’t always very nice about it.

‘But at camp and events, the people without diabetes are the odd ones. It’s rewarding even just to sit with them and check our blood sugars together, and then they don't see it as such a bad thing anymore.

‘There was one night on camp when I had to get up low. I walked into the dining hall where the nurses were, and they had all these snacks ready, and there were a couple of kids up with lows, too. They said, “What are you doing up?”

‘I said, “I'm low as well. We can all sit here and eat biscuits together.” So we just sat there having a chat at 3am about our lows. It was really nice.’

PUSHING THROUGH TEENAGE YEARS

Laura vividly remembers the difficulties of managing diabetes as a teenager: ‘I think, from 13 to about 17, I neglected it. I’d tell my mum, “I didn't ask for this – why should I have it? I don't want it.”

‘And my doctor in the UK was not very nice. Every time I’d see him, I’d end up crying because he’d be like, your HbA1c is so high and you're going to have all this damage and all these complications.

‘I was 13, and it would terrify me. It did educate me on what the complications could be, but giving me the harsh truth, like that, at that age, just made it worse, just made me more upset.

‘Because I cried in a lot of my appointments, the doctor referred me to a psychologist. And, in the end, it turned out that I did find seeing a psychologist helpful.

‘Probably the biggest challenge for me as a teenager was just accepting that it’s something I had to deal with. It probably took me a long time to realise that complaining about it and saying I didn't ask for it wasn’t going to make it go away.’

DIABETES AND ADHD

Laura has a recent diagnosis of ADHD, which has seen her looking back on her life through a new lens. ‘Everything makes a lot more sense, and I’m still in a process of discovering things about myself and how best to function now that I know my brain is a little bit different!

‘I started on meds not long after my diagnosis, and it’s been pretty good so far. I’ve also been trying to put strategies into place. And, as meds don’t work 24/7, I’m learning to be accepting of the diagnosis – just like my diabetes really. I’m trying to embrace the roller coaster more than battle it.

‘I’ve also learnt that there’s no harm in asking for help, which is also true of my diabetes. If I get overwhelmed and I’m struggling to get tasks done, there’s nothing wrong with me asking for an extension and explaining the situation or asking someone to help me with something I’ve hit a mental block on.’

While ADHD hasn’t impacted much on her diabetes management directly, she says she’s sometimes struggled with remembering whether she’s taken her insulin or not. Her pump solves that problem.

‘I had a pump before this, as a teenager, but I didn't like it. I felt it was bulky and a constant reminder of diabetes. But I’d grown up a little bit when I went back on it.

‘It sometimes still irritates me, and I take it off and go on injections again. But I've seen my HbA1c go down, so I don't mind it so much.’

She says another challenge is that ‘ADHD meds often have the side effect of nausea and loss of appetite. If I’m having a low, I often don’t want to eat because of the appetite suppression. It’s all a juggling act but keeps me on my toes.’

Laura with her mum, Cheryl, and her dad, Steven.

A CAREER IN HEALTH

Laura always wanted to work in health care. After leaving school, she explored options: ‘I thought I wanted to be a doctor. So I started the pre-med year but, halfway through, I decided I wasn’t that interested in organ systems and so on, and I thought medicine’s not for me. I changed my major to pharmacology, and I enjoyed that more.’

However, pharmacology seemed to be setting her on path to a research career, which she wasn’t keen on. ‘Then I thought I'd apply for pharmacy.’

She completed her Bachelor of Pharmacy in 2021, and is now doing the intern year that all pharmacy graduates have to complete before becoming registered.

Her internship is in a community pharmacy, but, after this year, she’d like to branch out. ‘There are lots of options for pharmacists. There’s hospital work and industry pharmacy. I’m interested in the pharmaceutical industry – medical devices and things. So maybe I'll end up there.’

A highlight of her pharmacy degree was a summer internship at Medsafe. ‘We were working under the Ministry of Health, at the border, based in Customs. We’d intercept packages coming in that had prescription medicines in them and send off letters. And we had to open packages and see if they had medicines in there they shouldn't have. That was interesting. And I think there are jobs out there in pharmacy that I don't even know exist yet. It’s early days.’

Other health-related careers are on her radar too. ‘Volunteering has made me interested in working with children more. But my mum says, “Don't think too much about the future yet – you need to do this year.” So I'm waiting to see where I end up.’

BUILDING THE YOUTH LEADER PROGRAMME

At the end of this year, if all goes to plan, Laura will head to Lisbon, Portugal, for the IDF Youth Training Summit.

Diabetes NZ will pay for her flights and offer as much support as possible.

Laura says, ‘I'm excited to meet all the other young leaders and make more friends across the world that are interested in doing the same things and have similar mindsets.’

As for her project, she’ll be working hard on it over the next three years, in partnership with Diabetes NZ.

Her first idea was to set up a mentor programme, where older people with diabetes would look after younger ones. But, after talking it through with Diabetes NZ, she realised a young leaders training programme here would be a necessary first step: ‘The idea is that a mentor programme could branch off from that. Those young leaders can go on to be mentors.

‘I'm excited to see what we do with this programme and to work with Diabetes NZ and meet more people around the country, because I've usually only worked with Diabetes NZ Auckland Youth.’

She hopes that, once the programme is up and running, it’ll give many others the same benefits she’s enjoyed: ‘It’ll allow our young people with diabetes to grow and develop into leaders in both the diabetes community and the wider community. It’ll build stronger connections between those young people all around the country and also between them and Diabetes NZ, so we can work together more.’

LAURA’S BRACELET

Laura was thrilled to be asked to choose this season’s MyIdentity bracelet. She says, ‘I was not expecting that at all!’

She chose an understated bracelet. ‘It’s a simple design but still elegant.’

She likes the bracelet she currently wears for the same reasons. ‘When people realise it’s a medical ID bracelet, they always say, “I just thought it was your normal bracelet.” Paramedics or emergency services will know what to look for, but it's not too inyour-face.’

IDF Young Leaders in Diabetes: www.idf.org/our-network/youngleaders/the-yld-programme.html.