July 26, 2025 • 29 mins
School and Type 1 Diabetes don’t always get along — but sometimes, they absolutely nail it.
In this powerful episode, Mike and Jack dive into 20 real-life school stories from the T1D community — from horrifying mishandled hypos to the unsung heroes who made school feel safe. Expect chaos, compassion, and a whole lot of “WTF?!”🔊 What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
10 shocking school fails — snacks confiscated, insulin locked away, and zero empathy
10 uplifting wins — thoughtful teachers, prepared nurses, and best mates for life
Jack’s honest thoughts on ignorance vs education
Mike’s scary school hypo that changed how he managed T1D
Why how a teacher responds can shape your entire school experience
💬 Quote from the Episode:
“When schools get it wrong, it’s not just inconvenient — it’s dangerous. But one understanding teacher can literally change a kid’s whole experience.” — Mike & Jack
📢 Got a Story?
We want to hear your school experiences — good, bad, or hilariously awkward.
🎤 DM us, email us, or send a voice note to be featured in a future episode.
📩 Email: wearet1dpodcast@gmail.com
🌍 Website: www.wearet1d.com
📸 Instagram: @wearet1d | @t1d_mike | @t1d_jack
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Have you ever heard a story so frustrating you want to throw
your CGM at the wall? Well, this might be that
episode. It started with a TikTok one
girl saying her school nurse refused to give her insulin.
The comments? Absolute chaos.
(00:20):
Thousands of kids and parents sharing how they've been
ignored, dismissed or even punished for having type 1
diabetes. We're talking being denied water
during a high, being told you don't look low during a hypo,
snacks being confiscated, insulin being locked in a
drawer, and that's just the warmup.
(00:43):
But it's not all doom and gloom and cluelessness.
Some schools get it right. Some teachers become literal
life lines. So today we're sharing real
stories, the good, the bad, and the what the actual fuck?
Yeah, whether you're a parent, ateacher, or a kid living with
(01:03):
type 1 diabetes right now, this one's just for you.
This is we are T1D, and today we're going back to school.
Don't worry, Jack, it's not. We don't have to get dressed for
it. You sure I've got my book?
Bag, I've got my link book. I never have one of them.
(01:25):
I did. Loads of scribbles.
Right. So basically we spoke about this
TikTok video. Let's get straight into it now
before we get to sidetracks, youknow what we're like.
And the video, it just, it frustrated me so much.
Like the way some kids get treated in school by teachers
(01:47):
not really knowing what's going on is disgusting.
Yeah. We decided to dig a bit deeper
than the video and go into the comments sections because, you
know, everyone has their own story and it's amazing when
people share it. We're not sharing any names, so
your privacy remains, but let's go.
I've got, we've got a list of 10bad experiences, but we've also
(02:10):
got a list of 10 good experiences as well.
So it's not all bad guys. No, no.
But let's just see how you feel about these.
Some of them was like some of them was mad like if you
actually put yourself in the shoes and then you think like
like how do you even get away with that?
But like for instance, the firstone that caught there was like
(02:32):
denied to treat a low. I was 14 shaking and sweating
and my teacher said if you leavethis class don't bother coming
back. I left anyway and that hypo
could have put me in hospital. Yeah, it's terrible.
Like where? Where's the care?
Where's the care Right there? Yeah, that's.
(02:53):
I'm glad. I'm glad the kid left simple.
I would have done 100%. So would I.
Don't bother coming back withouta cough you.
Know how would you react to thisone?
You're ready. I've got a detention in year 7
for eating in class. I was literally treating a low
with glucose tabs and had a note.
The teacher said you're not special.
(03:15):
Wow, wow. I'm I'm actually not going to.
So yeah. Guys, comment section, yeah, let
us know what you think of these.Yeah, that's but there there was
another one that stood out to usand the toilet was refused
during a hi. I asked to go to the toilet
(03:36):
during a hi. The teacher said you should have
gone during the break like everyone else.
I wet myself at 12 in front of everyone.
That's disgusting. That, that is.
Oh my God, how would you go backto school after that?
Obviously, because kids are kids, they're going to take the
Mick. Yeah, that's, that's mad.
(03:57):
That's mad. I didn't experience this when I
was a child, so all I can do is try and imagine and put myself
in the shoes. And yeah, honestly, it must.
It must be so hard, especially when you've got to deal with
things like this. Well, imagine this from a nurse.
You ready? Our school's nurse said she
didn't feel comfortable giving insulin without my mum there.
(04:21):
I missed so many lunch doses. I started hiding and injecting
in the toilet. What was it?
Every time you're doing injection, the mum has to be
called. One you should let himself
inject. Well, yeah.
But I guess it's a it's a controlled substance.
I'm not sure of the child's age by the way, but obviously they
(04:43):
could self inject. They started hiding and
injecting in the toilets so theywere basically just getting
denied medication by a nurse because they didn't feel
comfortable. Yeah, no, you can't have your
lunch because I can't. I don't feel comfortable giving
you insulin. Obviously nurses have training,
right? Yeah, they should do.
Yeah, it was another one. I was low during pee stumbling
(05:07):
and my teacher shouted stop messing around.
I passed out 10 minutes later. Don't think they were messing
around mate. No, honestly, it's.
Wow. We have 5 good ones.
Yeah, Should we go to five good and then five more bad?
Yeah, right. Let's do that.
Yeah, Let's mix it up because ifanyone's like me now, right now
(05:31):
you feel very angry. So let's, let's throw some light
on the situation. This one says understanding head
teacher. My head teacher sat with me
through my first school hypo. She asked me questions about how
it felt. I'll never forget that.
Wow. See, that's, yeah, exactly that.
(05:53):
Exactly that. That is the sort of shit that
people should be doing. Exactly caring for their
students. I understand asking like, how do
you feel you're trying to understand what is going on with
that person? But that's the thing in life
though, anything that you understand is easier to deal
with. It's when you don't understand
something, you can't deal with it.
(06:15):
You know what I'm thinking aboutit now.
Apart from my mum, my wife and probably you, I've never really
been asked like how anything felt like.
How does it feel? Yeah, that's actually quite.
Interesting. Well yeah, well done to that
person for actually wanting to learn.
There was another one and it says another T1D joined my
(06:37):
school and the staff put us in the same form so we could look
out for each other and we're best mates now.
That's. That's wiki.
Like that'd. Be us, Jack, if we went to
school now let's go night school.
Oh, imagine night. School I'm probably still bunk
just for this. Will you be my friend?
(07:03):
That's you see? Yeah, that's that's wicked, man.
Imagine that being all alone in a school, and then someone joins
and it turns out they're just like you.
But that's the mad thing. I actually had type 1 diabetics
in school when I was at school, but I didn't know they were type
1 diabetic and I don't think they knew I was type 1 diabetic.
Oh wow. It's weird, I've spoke to him
(07:24):
since like obviously actually releasing the podcast.
That's when they got in contact and told me about it but didn't
find out till like 20 odd years later.
That's crazy. It's.
Mad, isn't it? That's crazy.
It shows kids will hide hide stuff like that though.
Yeah, yeah, I say. I can't speak from myself
experience. So I can only imagine.
(07:45):
And I would probably think that if I was that young and I had
this now I'll I'll try and hide it.
I fully would. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't know because when you're that young it feels like
it's ammunition for someone elseto take piss.
Yeah, that's us being boys. It will be different for girls,
(08:05):
I'm sure, but oh. Yeah, of course.
Yeah. But I've.
Yeah, exactly. I don't think from a little
boy's perspective, you'll be thinking now, and everyone knows
that I have to do this. But then you could be that
confident person. They'll be like Nah, fuck it,
this is me. Well, like we are now.
I'm diabetic. People just accept it now
because we accept it. It's when you don't accept it,
it becomes ammo against you because it hurts.
(08:29):
Yeah, yeah. I think that's.
Well, I've gone deep again. Right, Let's go into PE.
We had one bad PE story, so let's have a good one.
My PE teacher always kept extra dextrose in her drawer.
She made sure I could still takepart just on my terms.
That's nice. Well.
(08:50):
Yeah, that's nice. That's nice.
Yeah, you can. You want to crack on and you're
and you're ready. You can then go for it.
If not, no problem. Yeah, that's the way it should
be. Yeah, give people the choice
instead of trying to tell people.
Yeah. I mean, even my daughter, she
don't go PE, she hates PE and that's just someone normally.
(09:13):
But if she goes forced to do it,you didn't go.
Yeah. No, for like 3 years.
OK, naughty Jack. No, I've done a hack.
It was in year 9 and they used to have used to go in the in the
hall every like start of the term and go and put your name on
the register. They'd be like football, tennis,
(09:34):
rugby, whatever, whatever, whatever.
Do you know what I mean? You go and pick your class for
the year to go and put your nameon the register.
I just didn't go to that. So for like 3 years I didn't
exist to the PE staff. Oh.
My. God, so I just had a three hour
every week. There you go.
If it still works guys, try that.
(09:55):
Yeah, do not try this at home. Try it at school.
There was another one that come through anyway that and said
that the junior GCS ES they gavethem a private room, glucose on
(10:17):
the desk and pauses if I went low or higher no questions
asked. Wow, that's good support.
Yeah, that's crazy. Imagine they're going to be high
anyway. It's like nerves in it, like
kicking in. Yeah, yeah.
My blood's any sort of any time I'm nervous or any sort of
adrenaline or anything, my blood's got mental.
(10:40):
Yeah, yeah, you, you're quite a emotional guy, aren't you?
Quite sensitive, but not. Really.
Yeah, he gives off this hard act.
But yeah, he's he's softy. I'm a gentle giant man.
This is what I'll have to think of.
To his friends, anyway. Don't piss me off, I suggested.
Don't piss. Me off, moving on right our our
(11:08):
nurse let me keep insulin in herfridge, checked my ketones when
I was ill, and once brought me aLucasaid from the shop where
mine exploded in my bag. Oh wow, you legend.
That's wiki. I don't know whether they're
because I'm not. My mum is a school nurse.
Well, she's not now, she's retired now, bless her.
(11:31):
But yeah, she was a school nurseand I can't remember what.
The only like hypotreats they were allowed is what the parents
were allowed to bring in. OK.
But they weren't. You weren't allowed.
Like no cans of Coke or chocolates or anything like that
because obviously it's a school,you're not allowed to tweet
things and that like what? Is it?
(11:52):
So it has to be like a like a lift shot or or a.
Dextrose shot. Most of the time, yeah, it was
even dextrose. But my think my mum said most of
the kids used to have the gels, not the cracking gels.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, they weren't allowed
at schools to have like sugary drinks and things like that
because of the because of Jamie Oliver.
(12:13):
In primary school I had digestive biscuits.
I remember that I used to feel abit funny and then I'll go to
shout her out. Miss Maroney, absolute legend.
If you're still alive, yes, she I used to go there, have
digestive biscuits. Sometimes if I oh actually let
me touch into my story because my school because in primary
(12:34):
school it was amazing. I had so much support from the
school because I'd just been diagnosed.
I would go sit in the medical. I'd usually bring a mate as
well. I was allowed to take a friend
sometimes and I'd just sort myself out.
I'll chat to her because my brothers went there as well.
And there's a 10 year age gap between me and my brothers, so
it's like she was there that time as well.
(12:55):
So. So she adds a few stories in
that. And yeah, it's just I had a
really good experience in primary school.
In secondary school I was an absolute shit, let's be honest.
So yeah, my care went out the window, but yeah, I just wanted
to shout her out because. But was was that down to your
school or was that down to you? I think that was down to her.
(13:19):
You know, you get that person that just cares.
Yeah, no, I mean like when you went secondary school you said
it just went a bit shit. So was that like down to school
or is that more self-inflicted because you just sort of like a
rebellious teenage? I don't know because the my I
thought I'll never forget this hypo.
I think it scared my dad becausemy dad didn't work on
Wednesdays. That was his day off.
(13:41):
I remember being in science. Next thing I know I was sitting
at home eating a banana on a sofa.
Oh wow, what like completely blacked art?
Yeah, but I walked home like basically unconscious.
Oh, my dad said. I was like fumbling my keys in
the door. It was like I was really drunk.
And then he, he obviously fed me.
(14:02):
And then I come back around and I don't remember leaving school
and obviously I'm guessing my mum would have phoned the school
like how the hell can you let this happen, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. But I think, I think that was
around year 8 and then year 9, my whole like mentality of it
all just shifted. I mean, year seven and eight I
was still really good. And then year 9 I just went to,
(14:25):
I think that might even be triggered from that fear.
Like, hold up, this ain't right.Yeah, I suppose.
Yeah, from like a really bad lower like that.
That's why you just always used to like fuck it, I've run myself
higher. Yeah, but that was back in the
day when I was only on 2 injections as well, so.
Also you can't even comment on like how it would be to inject
(14:46):
in school because you didn't. No, I never injected in school.
I didn't. I didn't go to Nova Rapid till
late teens I think it was. Wow.
Carb counting wasn't I heard back then.
I hear this one from a school. Go on.
This was another comment we found and it was I've raised my
hand to say I was low and the teacher said you can wait until
(15:09):
the end of the lesson like everyone else.
Excuse me, not everyone else hasto wait.
I'm I'm speechless. Speechless, honestly.
And that takes a lot for me to be fucking speechless.
Oh right, this goes back to the what we were saying about having
ammo. People called my Libra A
nicotine patch. One kid ripped it off and said
(15:31):
you don't need this, you're justlazy.
Oh wow, wow. I'm just, you know what?
If anyone done that to me now, Ithink I'd probably have a court
date. Yeah, yes.
Wow. That's crazy.
I was. There was one that stood out to
(15:52):
me and it was I was 9 and was told that you're old enough to
deal with it yourself. I won't even carb counting. 9.
Nine years old, you're told no. You can, you can, you can deal
with it. I suppose they probably, they
probably could, but if someone'sreaching out for support, do you
(16:13):
know what I mean? That's I, I think it's care.
There's not enough care, do you know?
I don't even think it's care because people don't just not
give a shit about other people. I think it's uneducational and
nobody actually understands how fucking serious high or low
(16:36):
blood sugar is. No.
And like, like I said about people asking questions, nobody
except a diabetic will ever knowwhat it feels like.
And that's not even you don't even know what I feel like and I
won't know what you feel like. Everyone's different, everybody
is different. So you could be sitting there
going like a complete, you have not got a clue what was going
(16:59):
on. You might just think one of them
typical and it's you've just eaten loads of shit.
So if you're diabetic, you've done it to yourself.
Like someone's going, oh, I've got low blood sugar hold all
right. But if you actually like, if you
actually knew and you was educated as a human being, you
would care. Yeah, see, I'm going to bring in
(17:22):
this story quite randomly because it happens today at
work. There's a customer that comes
in. He's actually a Type 2, but he
brought himself a chocolate brownie, right?
And he made the joke we can't eat this.
What do you reckon? I said.
Yeah, I fucking can. That's what I said I can, I just
need to inject for it. Yeah, yeah.
I had the same conversation witha customer yesterday.
(17:42):
He saw my sense and he's like diabetic.
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, Oh, my dad's, my
dad's diabetic as well. He's like, still likes his
sweets though, even though he shouldn't be eating them.
Oh, look, someone was like, is he type 2 by any chance?
He went, yeah, I was like, yeah,I'm type 1.
And she went, oh, OK. So he was like, so you can't
have, he's like, so you're like him as well.
(18:03):
You can't have normal stuff. I was just that problem.
I've literally got 2 Yum yums and a chocolate bar and a cut in
the van. I was like, and I will be eating
them in about 20 minutes. I was like.
This is what I mean that type 1 and type 2 they are different.
I actually feel sorry for type twos because you do have to be
so strict. I actually did you know what I
(18:25):
make it a thing. It's not a very like a long like
so people giddy up like, oh, fuck me, he's off 1 and one
again. But if someone makes the
assumption about type 1, type 2,I always just the smallest
little sentence say listen, type2 is insulin resistant.
You produce insulin, your body resists it.
Yeah, doesn't work properly. How it should do Type 1, it's
(18:48):
insulin dependent. My body does not produce insulin
whatsoever. Pancreas.
Bye bye. So I like the bye bye.
So we have to inject the insulin.
There you go guys. That's it.
That's that's the difference andthat's all I usually say to
people and like 9 times out of 10, straight away they go OK,
like it's, it's the easy way to understand it.
Oh 100% but back on subjects anyway.
(19:11):
Right so this kid I'm guessing they were newly diagnosed and a
supply teacher told the whole class I had diabetes and needed
special snacks. I hadn't even told my mates yet.
Oh wow, So they've announced it and oh wow.
Wow. Yeah, what right do you have to
(19:31):
announce someone disability? No, you, this is what I mean.
Do you, you need to have, oh, you need to be discreet.
That's the word discreet. Now you know he needs snacks to
treat if he goes low so just sayif.
If he's treating just give him alittle nod or saying just say go
on mate. Yeah, it's down.
(19:52):
It's down to the person. Yeah, that's that's bad.
That's bad. That's make me angry.
Well, again, this is the this isthe one that they said they
weren't trained and told me I couldn't come to my year six
trip. So you're pretty much banned
from the school trip. Because the staff weren't
(20:12):
trained. And they also added my mum cried
more than I did. You haven't.
That's that's the thing. And that is the hard well, it
shouldn't have to be, but that is why we feel so hard done by
sometimes, because of the thingsthat it makes us miss out on.
We miss out on social events. We do.
(20:35):
We miss out on normal. We could, we could miss
appointments, we could be late to work.
We would have to leave work early.
Sometimes it that is the harsh reality of it, that is the in
like that is the things that people from outside looking in
do not see and understand of howfucking difficult it really is
to deal with this. Not easy, right?
(20:57):
Should we switch back to the good because I feel a bit
depressed. Yeah.
OK and I like this one because because of their name right?
My best mate learned what hypos look like and would literally
shout get Mike a snack if I started zoning out.
(21:19):
Oh, yes, yes. See.
Yeah, Yeah, I could imagine that.
Like just friends at school gavesome sweets.
And then it's like, are you hypo?
No, I just like them. What are they?
Jelly babies? This one.
(21:42):
You can have the green one. I'm not too keen on the Green
Zovers to be fair. There was one that I saw and it
said I was having a bad high andI didn't want to perform my
drama. So the drama teacher said
diabetes doesn't define you, butyou're allowed to take a lead on
(22:04):
it. That's.
I wouldn't like that. Oh.
That's powerful. Yeah, I really like that when I
saw that. I could say it's a bit dramatic.
Oh wow, I was waiting for the pun.
Sorry. But yeah, that's that is a very
(22:24):
that it is a very. Powerful statement, right?
My tutor printed info sheets about type 1 diabetes for every
teacher I had and met my mum once a term.
Yes, yes, yes. See, that's not educating every
(22:45):
teacher, it's just educating people that need to know.
That's why I find that so powerful.
Yeah, yeah. Your form tutor is incredible
and I bet they were your favourite teacher.
This, this teacher was. Yeah, it says.
When I got diagnosed my teacher asked if I wanted to explain it
to the class and I brought in test strips and a fake pancreas
(23:10):
made from blago. Sorry.
Guys, you know my head, right? Well, you know what a pancreas
looks like. Was it actually shaped like a
pancreas? Sorry, sorry.
You might have been trying to build something else for biology
and it just went wrong. Do you know what?
It's a show and tell pancreas. There we go.
(23:33):
If you know, you know. No, that's brilliant though.
Yeah, that's wicked. See, that's the sort of shit you
should be doing. But yeah, if if you want to and
you want to tell the world aboutit like we do.
Yeah. Just yeah.
It's wicked. It's wicked saved.
Right last one they gave me access to a side room if I
needed to treat a hypo privately.
(23:55):
No questions, no shame, love that.
Nice. Nice.
Kind of kind of like kids get now, which is obviously my kids
get them in school is sometimes you get a timeout card.
I had one of them. Did you actually?
Yeah, I did. I honestly did.
I had a little blue slip. The if I everything got too much
for me in the classroom, I couldgive it to my teacher.
(24:16):
They put a signature on it and then I get a 15 minute break out
the classroom. I had, I had a walkout card.
I've had enough. I walk out.
To what? That's pretty much what I used
to timeout slip for, to be fair.But mine won a card.
I understand a little blue slit was like Rob signed out.
I'm going, I can't deal with this.
I'm going. Oh, it's.
(24:37):
Crazy. It's great.
Like they feel like that. That's how they, like, I look at
it now because obviously my mum's been in the school thing
for so long, like. Yeah.
How I got dealt with, if I was like that now, the support that
I would get or they would try and give me.
But yeah, like it's it's times have changed, man.
Yeah, there's a lot more supportin schools.
(24:59):
Yeah, yeah, it is definitely forthe better.
But you do get them shit teachers.
Yeah, yeah. But like I say, I don't actually
blame the teachers, I blame education.
Yeah, education. Yeah.
But you are, as I say, as a person and you're just being
like, that is just a Dick. Straight up say as it is, Jack.
(25:22):
Everyone knows I don't have any philtres.
Yeah, that is what you would be called in my eyes.
You're an absolute tosser. There you go, ignorant.
Quick disclaimer for the beginning of this podcast, Jack
will probably square swear quitea bit.
I haven't sworn loads. OK, right.
(25:42):
So guys, let us know your thoughts on this because it's a
different kind of episode. But I saw the video and I just
thought it was just, it's something that we need to touch
on, especially with it being a six weeks holiday now, it might
give time for new teachers joining schools, whatever, to
get their education in place to support type 1 diabetic children
(26:03):
the right way. Yeah, I just know when you sent
it to me, I was just reading through the comments like, oh,
wow, wow. Crazy.
We ain't even touched on half ofthem.
Some of them, absolutely. Yeah.
Speechless. There's another 50 guys, let us
know if you won a round two as well of an episode like this.
(26:24):
Because yeah, analysing, analysing Tik Toks.
Analysing tik toks, analysing life experiences I think is more
the thing. Yeah, true.
Yeah, because yeah, they are, they are real life comments.
Like literally all we have done is just pulled them comments
straight off the video that we saw and it was yeah, we wanted
to react to them properly. Yeah.
(26:46):
Well, yeah, some of them storieswere pretty hard to read.
Some of them are fucking brilliant.
And as much as we laughed at some of them and went silent for
some of them as well and wanted to like, just shake someone
repeatedly because of some of them as well, Yeah, this stuff
(27:09):
is serious. Because when schools get wrong,
it's just not. It's not just like an
inconvenience. It can be really dangerous.
You're playing with someone's life.
Exactly that, it can be very dangerous but when they do get
it right it does make a massive difference.
One understanding teacher can literally change the kids entire
(27:31):
experience. That's very true, right?
So here's what we want. If you've got a school story,
good, bad, awkward, inspiring, just funny, we want to hear it.
Whether it's a nurse who've saved your life or a head
teacher for insulin was illegal,send it our way.
(27:52):
Yeah, e-mail us, DM us, even send us a voice note, anything
if you really want to be part ofan episode as well and you're
happy to have your voice. Yeah, that's.
Telling your story. I like that.
I like that. Yeah, voice notes.
We can, we can share them, guys.So if you want to just do your
whole story yourself. Literally send us a whole.
(28:13):
Send us a whole waffle. Yeah, we love you.
Don't want we like waffle. We love it.
I'm surprised I'm trying. I'm so surprised this podcast
AT1D waffles. But but anyway, the more stories
you do share, the louder our community gets and it's and the
more you share, the harder it becomes to ignore us as type 1
(28:37):
diabetics. Yeah, 100%.
And if you're a teacher listening, thank you.
You might just be someone's hero.
No, Imagine that guys. This has been we are T1D, so hit
the follow, leave the review andwe'll see you next Sunday.
Yeah. Same time, same place, we'll be
(28:59):
back again. See you later guys.
Have you ever heard a story so frustrating you want to throw
your CGM at the wall? Well, this might be that
episode. It started with a TikTok one
girl saying her school nurse refused to give her insulin.
The comments? Absolute chaos.
(00:20):
Thousands of kids and parents sharing how they've been
ignored, dismissed or even punished for having type 1
diabetes. We're talking being denied water
during a high, being told you don't look low during a hypo,
snacks being confiscated, insulin being locked in a
drawer, and that's just the warmup.
(00:43):
But it's not all doom and gloom and cluelessness.
Some schools get it right. Some teachers become literal
life lines. So today we're sharing real
stories, the good, the bad, and the what the actual fuck?
Yeah, whether you're a parent, ateacher, or a kid living with
(01:03):
type 1 diabetes right now, this one's just for you.
This is we are T1D, and today we're going back to school.
Don't worry, Jack, it's not. We don't have to get dressed for
it. You sure I've got my book?
Bag, I've got my link book. I never have one of them.
(01:25):
I did. Loads of scribbles.
Right. So basically we spoke about this
TikTok video. Let's get straight into it now
before we get to sidetracks, youknow what we're like.
And the video, it just, it frustrated me so much.
Like the way some kids get treated in school by teachers
(01:47):
not really knowing what's going on is disgusting.
Yeah. We decided to dig a bit deeper
than the video and go into the comments sections because, you
know, everyone has their own story and it's amazing when
people share it. We're not sharing any names, so
your privacy remains, but let's go.
I've got, we've got a list of 10bad experiences, but we've also
(02:10):
got a list of 10 good experiences as well.
So it's not all bad guys. No, no.
But let's just see how you feel about these.
Some of them was like some of them was mad like if you
actually put yourself in the shoes and then you think like
like how do you even get away with that?
But like for instance, the firstone that caught there was like
(02:32):
denied to treat a low. I was 14 shaking and sweating
and my teacher said if you leavethis class don't bother coming
back. I left anyway and that hypo
could have put me in hospital. Yeah, it's terrible.
Like where? Where's the care?
Where's the care Right there? Yeah, that's.
(02:53):
I'm glad. I'm glad the kid left simple.
I would have done 100%. So would I.
Don't bother coming back withouta cough you.
Know how would you react to thisone?
You're ready. I've got a detention in year 7
for eating in class. I was literally treating a low
with glucose tabs and had a note.
The teacher said you're not special.
(03:15):
Wow, wow. I'm I'm actually not going to.
So yeah. Guys, comment section, yeah, let
us know what you think of these.Yeah, that's but there there was
another one that stood out to usand the toilet was refused
during a hi. I asked to go to the toilet
(03:36):
during a hi. The teacher said you should have
gone during the break like everyone else.
I wet myself at 12 in front of everyone.
That's disgusting. That, that is.
Oh my God, how would you go backto school after that?
Obviously, because kids are kids, they're going to take the
Mick. Yeah, that's, that's mad.
(03:57):
That's mad. I didn't experience this when I
was a child, so all I can do is try and imagine and put myself
in the shoes. And yeah, honestly, it must.
It must be so hard, especially when you've got to deal with
things like this. Well, imagine this from a nurse.
You ready? Our school's nurse said she
didn't feel comfortable giving insulin without my mum there.
(04:21):
I missed so many lunch doses. I started hiding and injecting
in the toilet. What was it?
Every time you're doing injection, the mum has to be
called. One you should let himself
inject. Well, yeah.
But I guess it's a it's a controlled substance.
I'm not sure of the child's age by the way, but obviously they
(04:43):
could self inject. They started hiding and
injecting in the toilets so theywere basically just getting
denied medication by a nurse because they didn't feel
comfortable. Yeah, no, you can't have your
lunch because I can't. I don't feel comfortable giving
you insulin. Obviously nurses have training,
right? Yeah, they should do.
Yeah, it was another one. I was low during pee stumbling
(05:07):
and my teacher shouted stop messing around.
I passed out 10 minutes later. Don't think they were messing
around mate. No, honestly, it's.
Wow. We have 5 good ones.
Yeah, Should we go to five good and then five more bad?
Yeah, right. Let's do that.
Yeah, Let's mix it up because ifanyone's like me now, right now
(05:31):
you feel very angry. So let's, let's throw some light
on the situation. This one says understanding head
teacher. My head teacher sat with me
through my first school hypo. She asked me questions about how
it felt. I'll never forget that.
Wow. See, that's, yeah, exactly that.
(05:53):
Exactly that. That is the sort of shit that
people should be doing. Exactly caring for their
students. I understand asking like, how do
you feel you're trying to understand what is going on with
that person? But that's the thing in life
though, anything that you understand is easier to deal
with. It's when you don't understand
something, you can't deal with it.
(06:15):
You know what I'm thinking aboutit now.
Apart from my mum, my wife and probably you, I've never really
been asked like how anything felt like.
How does it feel? Yeah, that's actually quite.
Interesting. Well yeah, well done to that
person for actually wanting to learn.
There was another one and it says another T1D joined my
(06:37):
school and the staff put us in the same form so we could look
out for each other and we're best mates now.
That's. That's wiki.
Like that'd. Be us, Jack, if we went to
school now let's go night school.
Oh, imagine night. School I'm probably still bunk
just for this. Will you be my friend?
(07:03):
That's you see? Yeah, that's that's wicked, man.
Imagine that being all alone in a school, and then someone joins
and it turns out they're just like you.
But that's the mad thing. I actually had type 1 diabetics
in school when I was at school, but I didn't know they were type
1 diabetic and I don't think they knew I was type 1 diabetic.
Oh wow. It's weird, I've spoke to him
(07:24):
since like obviously actually releasing the podcast.
That's when they got in contact and told me about it but didn't
find out till like 20 odd years later.
That's crazy. It's.
Mad, isn't it? That's crazy.
It shows kids will hide hide stuff like that though.
Yeah, yeah, I say. I can't speak from myself
experience. So I can only imagine.
(07:45):
And I would probably think that if I was that young and I had
this now I'll I'll try and hide it.
I fully would. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't know because when you're that young it feels like
it's ammunition for someone elseto take piss.
Yeah, that's us being boys. It will be different for girls,
(08:05):
I'm sure, but oh. Yeah, of course.
Yeah. But I've.
Yeah, exactly. I don't think from a little
boy's perspective, you'll be thinking now, and everyone knows
that I have to do this. But then you could be that
confident person. They'll be like Nah, fuck it,
this is me. Well, like we are now.
I'm diabetic. People just accept it now
because we accept it. It's when you don't accept it,
it becomes ammo against you because it hurts.
(08:29):
Yeah, yeah. I think that's.
Well, I've gone deep again. Right, Let's go into PE.
We had one bad PE story, so let's have a good one.
My PE teacher always kept extra dextrose in her drawer.
She made sure I could still takepart just on my terms.
That's nice. Well.
(08:50):
Yeah, that's nice. That's nice.
Yeah, you can. You want to crack on and you're
and you're ready. You can then go for it.
If not, no problem. Yeah, that's the way it should
be. Yeah, give people the choice
instead of trying to tell people.
Yeah. I mean, even my daughter, she
don't go PE, she hates PE and that's just someone normally.
(09:13):
But if she goes forced to do it,you didn't go.
Yeah. No, for like 3 years.
OK, naughty Jack. No, I've done a hack.
It was in year 9 and they used to have used to go in the in the
hall every like start of the term and go and put your name on
the register. They'd be like football, tennis,
(09:34):
rugby, whatever, whatever, whatever.
Do you know what I mean? You go and pick your class for
the year to go and put your nameon the register.
I just didn't go to that. So for like 3 years I didn't
exist to the PE staff. Oh.
My. God, so I just had a three hour
every week. There you go.
If it still works guys, try that.
(09:55):
Yeah, do not try this at home. Try it at school.
There was another one that come through anyway that and said
that the junior GCS ES they gavethem a private room, glucose on
(10:17):
the desk and pauses if I went low or higher no questions
asked. Wow, that's good support.
Yeah, that's crazy. Imagine they're going to be high
anyway. It's like nerves in it, like
kicking in. Yeah, yeah.
My blood's any sort of any time I'm nervous or any sort of
adrenaline or anything, my blood's got mental.
(10:40):
Yeah, yeah, you, you're quite a emotional guy, aren't you?
Quite sensitive, but not. Really.
Yeah, he gives off this hard act.
But yeah, he's he's softy. I'm a gentle giant man.
This is what I'll have to think of.
To his friends, anyway. Don't piss me off, I suggested.
Don't piss. Me off, moving on right our our
(11:08):
nurse let me keep insulin in herfridge, checked my ketones when
I was ill, and once brought me aLucasaid from the shop where
mine exploded in my bag. Oh wow, you legend.
That's wiki. I don't know whether they're
because I'm not. My mum is a school nurse.
Well, she's not now, she's retired now, bless her.
(11:31):
But yeah, she was a school nurseand I can't remember what.
The only like hypotreats they were allowed is what the parents
were allowed to bring in. OK.
But they weren't. You weren't allowed.
Like no cans of Coke or chocolates or anything like that
because obviously it's a school,you're not allowed to tweet
things and that like what? Is it?
(11:52):
So it has to be like a like a lift shot or or a.
Dextrose shot. Most of the time, yeah, it was
even dextrose. But my think my mum said most of
the kids used to have the gels, not the cracking gels.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, they weren't allowed
at schools to have like sugary drinks and things like that
because of the because of Jamie Oliver.
(12:13):
In primary school I had digestive biscuits.
I remember that I used to feel abit funny and then I'll go to
shout her out. Miss Maroney, absolute legend.
If you're still alive, yes, she I used to go there, have
digestive biscuits. Sometimes if I oh actually let
me touch into my story because my school because in primary
(12:34):
school it was amazing. I had so much support from the
school because I'd just been diagnosed.
I would go sit in the medical. I'd usually bring a mate as
well. I was allowed to take a friend
sometimes and I'd just sort myself out.
I'll chat to her because my brothers went there as well.
And there's a 10 year age gap between me and my brothers, so
it's like she was there that time as well.
(12:55):
So. So she adds a few stories in
that. And yeah, it's just I had a
really good experience in primary school.
In secondary school I was an absolute shit, let's be honest.
So yeah, my care went out the window, but yeah, I just wanted
to shout her out because. But was was that down to your
school or was that down to you? I think that was down to her.
(13:19):
You know, you get that person that just cares.
Yeah, no, I mean like when you went secondary school you said
it just went a bit shit. So was that like down to school
or is that more self-inflicted because you just sort of like a
rebellious teenage? I don't know because the my I
thought I'll never forget this hypo.
I think it scared my dad becausemy dad didn't work on
Wednesdays. That was his day off.
(13:41):
I remember being in science. Next thing I know I was sitting
at home eating a banana on a sofa.
Oh wow, what like completely blacked art?
Yeah, but I walked home like basically unconscious.
Oh, my dad said. I was like fumbling my keys in
the door. It was like I was really drunk.
And then he, he obviously fed me.
(14:02):
And then I come back around and I don't remember leaving school
and obviously I'm guessing my mum would have phoned the school
like how the hell can you let this happen, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. But I think, I think that was
around year 8 and then year 9, my whole like mentality of it
all just shifted. I mean, year seven and eight I
was still really good. And then year 9 I just went to,
(14:25):
I think that might even be triggered from that fear.
Like, hold up, this ain't right.Yeah, I suppose.
Yeah, from like a really bad lower like that.
That's why you just always used to like fuck it, I've run myself
higher. Yeah, but that was back in the
day when I was only on 2 injections as well, so.
Also you can't even comment on like how it would be to inject
(14:46):
in school because you didn't. No, I never injected in school.
I didn't. I didn't go to Nova Rapid till
late teens I think it was. Wow.
Carb counting wasn't I heard back then.
I hear this one from a school. Go on.
This was another comment we found and it was I've raised my
hand to say I was low and the teacher said you can wait until
(15:09):
the end of the lesson like everyone else.
Excuse me, not everyone else hasto wait.
I'm I'm speechless. Speechless, honestly.
And that takes a lot for me to be fucking speechless.
Oh right, this goes back to the what we were saying about having
ammo. People called my Libra A
nicotine patch. One kid ripped it off and said
(15:31):
you don't need this, you're justlazy.
Oh wow, wow. I'm just, you know what?
If anyone done that to me now, Ithink I'd probably have a court
date. Yeah, yes.
Wow. That's crazy.
I was. There was one that stood out to
(15:52):
me and it was I was 9 and was told that you're old enough to
deal with it yourself. I won't even carb counting. 9.
Nine years old, you're told no. You can, you can, you can deal
with it. I suppose they probably, they
probably could, but if someone'sreaching out for support, do you
(16:13):
know what I mean? That's I, I think it's care.
There's not enough care, do you know?
I don't even think it's care because people don't just not
give a shit about other people. I think it's uneducational and
nobody actually understands how fucking serious high or low
(16:36):
blood sugar is. No.
And like, like I said about people asking questions, nobody
except a diabetic will ever knowwhat it feels like.
And that's not even you don't even know what I feel like and I
won't know what you feel like. Everyone's different, everybody
is different. So you could be sitting there
going like a complete, you have not got a clue what was going
(16:59):
on. You might just think one of them
typical and it's you've just eaten loads of shit.
So if you're diabetic, you've done it to yourself.
Like someone's going, oh, I've got low blood sugar hold all
right. But if you actually like, if you
actually knew and you was educated as a human being, you
would care. Yeah, see, I'm going to bring in
(17:22):
this story quite randomly because it happens today at
work. There's a customer that comes
in. He's actually a Type 2, but he
brought himself a chocolate brownie, right?
And he made the joke we can't eat this.
What do you reckon? I said.
Yeah, I fucking can. That's what I said I can, I just
need to inject for it. Yeah, yeah.
I had the same conversation witha customer yesterday.
(17:42):
He saw my sense and he's like diabetic.
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, Oh, my dad's, my
dad's diabetic as well. He's like, still likes his
sweets though, even though he shouldn't be eating them.
Oh, look, someone was like, is he type 2 by any chance?
He went, yeah, I was like, yeah,I'm type 1.
And she went, oh, OK. So he was like, so you can't
have, he's like, so you're like him as well.
(18:03):
You can't have normal stuff. I was just that problem.
I've literally got 2 Yum yums and a chocolate bar and a cut in
the van. I was like, and I will be eating
them in about 20 minutes. I was like.
This is what I mean that type 1 and type 2 they are different.
I actually feel sorry for type twos because you do have to be
so strict. I actually did you know what I
(18:25):
make it a thing. It's not a very like a long like
so people giddy up like, oh, fuck me, he's off 1 and one
again. But if someone makes the
assumption about type 1, type 2,I always just the smallest
little sentence say listen, type2 is insulin resistant.
You produce insulin, your body resists it.
Yeah, doesn't work properly. How it should do Type 1, it's
(18:48):
insulin dependent. My body does not produce insulin
whatsoever. Pancreas.
Bye bye. So I like the bye bye.
So we have to inject the insulin.
There you go guys. That's it.
That's that's the difference andthat's all I usually say to
people and like 9 times out of 10, straight away they go OK,
like it's, it's the easy way to understand it.
Oh 100% but back on subjects anyway.
(19:11):
Right so this kid I'm guessing they were newly diagnosed and a
supply teacher told the whole class I had diabetes and needed
special snacks. I hadn't even told my mates yet.
Oh wow, So they've announced it and oh wow.
Wow. Yeah, what right do you have to
(19:31):
announce someone disability? No, you, this is what I mean.
Do you, you need to have, oh, you need to be discreet.
That's the word discreet. Now you know he needs snacks to
treat if he goes low so just sayif.
If he's treating just give him alittle nod or saying just say go
on mate. Yeah, it's down.
(19:52):
It's down to the person. Yeah, that's that's bad.
That's bad. That's make me angry.
Well, again, this is the this isthe one that they said they
weren't trained and told me I couldn't come to my year six
trip. So you're pretty much banned
from the school trip. Because the staff weren't
(20:12):
trained. And they also added my mum cried
more than I did. You haven't.
That's that's the thing. And that is the hard well, it
shouldn't have to be, but that is why we feel so hard done by
sometimes, because of the thingsthat it makes us miss out on.
We miss out on social events. We do.
(20:35):
We miss out on normal. We could, we could miss
appointments, we could be late to work.
We would have to leave work early.
Sometimes it that is the harsh reality of it, that is the in
like that is the things that people from outside looking in
do not see and understand of howfucking difficult it really is
to deal with this. Not easy, right?
(20:57):
Should we switch back to the good because I feel a bit
depressed. Yeah.
OK and I like this one because because of their name right?
My best mate learned what hypos look like and would literally
shout get Mike a snack if I started zoning out.
(21:19):
Oh, yes, yes. See.
Yeah, Yeah, I could imagine that.
Like just friends at school gavesome sweets.
And then it's like, are you hypo?
No, I just like them. What are they?
Jelly babies? This one.
(21:42):
You can have the green one. I'm not too keen on the Green
Zovers to be fair. There was one that I saw and it
said I was having a bad high andI didn't want to perform my
drama. So the drama teacher said
diabetes doesn't define you, butyou're allowed to take a lead on
(22:04):
it. That's.
I wouldn't like that. Oh.
That's powerful. Yeah, I really like that when I
saw that. I could say it's a bit dramatic.
Oh wow, I was waiting for the pun.
Sorry. But yeah, that's that is a very
(22:24):
that it is a very. Powerful statement, right?
My tutor printed info sheets about type 1 diabetes for every
teacher I had and met my mum once a term.
Yes, yes, yes. See, that's not educating every
(22:45):
teacher, it's just educating people that need to know.
That's why I find that so powerful.
Yeah, yeah. Your form tutor is incredible
and I bet they were your favourite teacher.
This, this teacher was. Yeah, it says.
When I got diagnosed my teacher asked if I wanted to explain it
to the class and I brought in test strips and a fake pancreas
(23:10):
made from blago. Sorry.
Guys, you know my head, right? Well, you know what a pancreas
looks like. Was it actually shaped like a
pancreas? Sorry, sorry.
You might have been trying to build something else for biology
and it just went wrong. Do you know what?
It's a show and tell pancreas. There we go.
(23:33):
If you know, you know. No, that's brilliant though.
Yeah, that's wicked. See, that's the sort of shit you
should be doing. But yeah, if if you want to and
you want to tell the world aboutit like we do.
Yeah. Just yeah.
It's wicked. It's wicked saved.
Right last one they gave me access to a side room if I
needed to treat a hypo privately.
(23:55):
No questions, no shame, love that.
Nice. Nice.
Kind of kind of like kids get now, which is obviously my kids
get them in school is sometimes you get a timeout card.
I had one of them. Did you actually?
Yeah, I did. I honestly did.
I had a little blue slip. The if I everything got too much
for me in the classroom, I couldgive it to my teacher.
(24:16):
They put a signature on it and then I get a 15 minute break out
the classroom. I had, I had a walkout card.
I've had enough. I walk out.
To what? That's pretty much what I used
to timeout slip for, to be fair.But mine won a card.
I understand a little blue slit was like Rob signed out.
I'm going, I can't deal with this.
I'm going. Oh, it's.
(24:37):
Crazy. It's great.
Like they feel like that. That's how they, like, I look at
it now because obviously my mum's been in the school thing
for so long, like. Yeah.
How I got dealt with, if I was like that now, the support that
I would get or they would try and give me.
But yeah, like it's it's times have changed, man.
Yeah, there's a lot more supportin schools.
(24:59):
Yeah, yeah, it is definitely forthe better.
But you do get them shit teachers.
Yeah, yeah. But like I say, I don't actually
blame the teachers, I blame education.
Yeah, education. Yeah.
But you are, as I say, as a person and you're just being
like, that is just a Dick. Straight up say as it is, Jack.
(25:22):
Everyone knows I don't have any philtres.
Yeah, that is what you would be called in my eyes.
You're an absolute tosser. There you go, ignorant.
Quick disclaimer for the beginning of this podcast, Jack
will probably square swear quitea bit.
I haven't sworn loads. OK, right.
(25:42):
So guys, let us know your thoughts on this because it's a
different kind of episode. But I saw the video and I just
thought it was just, it's something that we need to touch
on, especially with it being a six weeks holiday now, it might
give time for new teachers joining schools, whatever, to
get their education in place to support type 1 diabetic children
(26:03):
the right way. Yeah, I just know when you sent
it to me, I was just reading through the comments like, oh,
wow, wow. Crazy.
We ain't even touched on half ofthem.
Some of them, absolutely. Yeah.
Speechless. There's another 50 guys, let us
know if you won a round two as well of an episode like this.
(26:24):
Because yeah, analysing, analysing Tik Toks.
Analysing tik toks, analysing life experiences I think is more
the thing. Yeah, true.
Yeah, because yeah, they are, they are real life comments.
Like literally all we have done is just pulled them comments
straight off the video that we saw and it was yeah, we wanted
to react to them properly. Yeah.
(26:46):
Well, yeah, some of them storieswere pretty hard to read.
Some of them are fucking brilliant.
And as much as we laughed at some of them and went silent for
some of them as well and wanted to like, just shake someone
repeatedly because of some of them as well, Yeah, this stuff
(27:09):
is serious. Because when schools get wrong,
it's just not. It's not just like an
inconvenience. It can be really dangerous.
You're playing with someone's life.
Exactly that, it can be very dangerous but when they do get
it right it does make a massive difference.
One understanding teacher can literally change the kids entire
(27:31):
experience. That's very true, right?
So here's what we want. If you've got a school story,
good, bad, awkward, inspiring, just funny, we want to hear it.
Whether it's a nurse who've saved your life or a head
teacher for insulin was illegal,send it our way.
(27:52):
Yeah, e-mail us, DM us, even send us a voice note, anything
if you really want to be part ofan episode as well and you're
happy to have your voice. Yeah, that's.
Telling your story. I like that.
I like that. Yeah, voice notes.
We can, we can share them, guys.So if you want to just do your
whole story yourself. Literally send us a whole.
(28:13):
Send us a whole waffle. Yeah, we love you.
Don't want we like waffle. We love it.
I'm surprised I'm trying. I'm so surprised this podcast
AT1D waffles. But but anyway, the more stories
you do share, the louder our community gets and it's and the
more you share, the harder it becomes to ignore us as type 1
(28:37):
diabetics. Yeah, 100%.
And if you're a teacher listening, thank you.
You might just be someone's hero.
No, Imagine that guys. This has been we are T1D, so hit
the follow, leave the review andwe'll see you next Sunday.
Yeah. Same time, same place, we'll be
(28:59):
back again. See you later guys.
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