From left: Charlie, Mark, Sharon, Lily, and Jack. And their old labrador, Bruno.
Lily is able to empathise with families coming through the ward. Having been through the same situation, she can offer reassurance. ‘There’s a lot of information to learn quite quickly. Depending on the patient, I’ll tell them I’m a type 1 too. And that you’ll turn out fine, you’ve just got to learn the stuff.’ A SIBLING
Lily Warrior is part of a whānau very well versed in the ins and outs of diabetes. First came her dad, then each of the kids. And then to top it all off, Bruno the dog. The three Warrior kids’ diagnoses were spread out over a few years, with Lily kicking things off when she was eight. While the stress on the family at the time must have been palpable, she says by the time her youngest brother Jack was diagnosed the family was well into the swing of things. Ironically, it was dropping off Lily and brother Charlie to a Diabetes Youth summer kids camp that prompted Jack’s diagnosis. He had been constantly thirsty, frequently heading off to the bathroom, and was very tired – all the classic symptoms of type 1. They tested Jack’s blood glucose then spoke to one of the doctors, who advised them to take him to hospital.
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DIABETES WELLNESS | Summer 2024
‘By then, we knew the drill. The signs were clear,’ Lily says. The following year, all three Warriors attended the summer camp together. It was Jack’s first, but by that time Lily and Charlie were seasoned pros. ‘In a roundabout way, it almost makes it feel nicer if you’re not the only kid who has it in your family. You’ve got a sibling you can go along with.’ A decade after that memorable camp drop-off, much has happened. Jack is at college, and Charlie is studying product design at Canterbury. He was recently selected from his class to give a presentation to a panel about his new diabetes invention – a patch that attaches to pump sites that detects if insulin is leaking or if the site isn't working. And Lily is now a paediatric nurse. When she was in her final year of college, she was reflecting on different parts of her life and what sorts of people had made an
impression on her. She quickly came to the realisation that her diabetes nurses really stuck out, so she applied to study nursing at Massey University. ‘I knew even before I started that I wanted to work with children and diabetes, and the placements only confirmed this. I realised surgical is not for me. I like the medical side of things and along with that comes the new diagnosis of diabetes in children.’ Lily now works with the new type 1 diagnoses and welcomes the families into the diabetes community. ‘I have been able to become the diabetes champion for the ward, which means I now have input into new policies and forms used by people with diabetes whilst they are inpatient.’ Lily’s hope for the future is to eventually become a Diabetes Nurse Specialist, with the end goal becoming a Nurse Practitioner and running her own diabetes clinics for kids.
