Your DNZ
We continue our travels around the motu where we meet each region’s Diabetes Youth Coordinator. In this issue, we meet Lena Fendley-Peach in Tauranga.
LEAN ON ME L
ena Fendley-Peach recounts those first few weeks of her son’s diagnosis with type 1 diabetes. ‘We were in that head spinning/not knowing what you’re doing/worried about the future place.’ The one positive thing about this stressful period for Lena and her son Ezra was the timing. ‘We got to go to the family camp three weeks after diagnosis, which was amazing. So to be able to go to camp and talk to people that had been dealing with type 1 for a long time was great. Knowing he was going to be ok and live a normal life was what we got out of that time, watching these other kids just doing normal, everyday stuff.’ Back home, Lena and her then eight-year-old son enjoyed the help they started receiving from their newly discovered community. The awesome support they found blossomed into friendships, Lena says, with two mums in particular who were in similar positions to herself.
GIVING BACK
Once her head had ceased spinning, Lena threw herself into as much volunteering within her local diabetes community and helping at camps and events as her job as a home-based carer would allow. But the time came when she didn’t have as many kids coming to her, and that’s when she decided to go to Toi Ohomai Polytech in Tauranga and embark on a Bachelor’s degree in
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DIABETES WELLNESS | Summer 2024
