Managing ADHD, and how type 1 diabetes helped me find myself with Natalie Balmain

Back in 2017, I was working at BBC Health News Online when I came across an article about a lady who had launched a clothing range specifically for women with type 1 diabetes, designed to help them manage the condition with strategically placed holes for injecting or reaching devices. 

Its creator Natalie Balmain had the idea following her own diagnosis at the age of 20. Many years and many further creative ideas later, Natalie joins me as today’s guest.

Whether it’s fashion design, hosting Insulet’s Typecast podcast, winning reality TV shows as a would-be politician, or working in corporate communications, Natalie is a master adapter, but also a crusader.

In this episode we talk about how type 1 diabetes gave Natalie the confidence she never had, learning to let her guard down and build community, and how she manages her ADHD alongside the many demands of type 1 diabetes. 

CONNECT WITH NATALIE
Follow Natalie on Instagram.
Discover Natalie on TikTok.
Watch the Typecast podcast.

JOIN THE TYPE 1 ON 1 INSTAGRAM COMMUNITY 
Come and say hi @studiotype1on1 on Instagram.

DISCLAIMER
Nothing you hear on Type 1 on 1 should be taken as medical advice. Please consult your healthcare team before making any changes to your diabetes or health management.

SPONSOR MESSAGE
This episode of Type 1 on 1 is sponsored by Insulet, the makers of Omnipod tube-free insulin pump therapy. Using Omnipod 5 Automated Insulin Delivery has improved my diabetes management significantly with less diabetes decisions, and of course no multiple daily injections. How? Well, Omnipod 5 automatically adjusts insulin every five minutes to help keep me in range, allowing life outside of type 1 diabetes to get bigger. If you want to know more, head to Omnipod.com.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of Type one on one is sponsored by
insulect more on that later. Just to say, as is
the case with every episode of Type one on one,
nothing you hear within this podcast episode is intended to
be nor should be taken as medical advice, and you
absolutely need to speak to your healthcare professionals before making
any changes to your diabetes or healthcare management. Natalie is

(00:22):
chatting through her personal lived experience. She talks through type
one diabetes and also changing her treatment options for ADHD,
which she did with the help and guidance of a
medical professional. If you want to come and say hi,
you can do so at Studio type one on one
on Instagram and I I'd love to see you there. Hi, everyone,
and welcome to Type one on one, a podcast that

(00:45):
delves into the obscure, complex and challenging world of life
with Type one diabetes. I'm Jen Greeves, and each week,
with the help of some brilliant guests, I'll be showing
that there is no normal when it comes to handling
this whopper of a chronic condition. Because we're all pretty
much figuring out the messiness of day to day life

(01:06):
with diabetes as we go, and most of all, even
though it doesn't always feel like it, we are absolutely
not alone. Back in twenty seventeen, I was working on
the BBC Health News online desk when I came across
an article about a lady who had launched a clothing
range specifically for women with type one diabetes, designed to

(01:26):
help them manage the condition and feel more confident. The designer,
Natalie Bauman, had the idea of following her own diagnosis
at the age of twenty. The clothes had strategically placed
holes and zips to make it easier to inject or
access diabetes devices, and fate put me in the same
room as that woman. Just a few months later, and

(01:47):
many many years on, Natalie joins me as today's guest,
whether it's fashion design, hosting intule It's typecast podcast, appearing
and winning reality TV shows. As a would be politician
working at senior level in NHS Communications, or casually hopping
over to LA to progress an acting career. Natalie is
a master adapter, but also a crusader on a mission

(02:10):
to make life better for people living with type one diabetes.
So on top of all that, life with type one
diabetes is just another part of the juggle or is
it Let's find out. Hello Natalie, welcome to Type one
on one.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Hi Jen, Oh my god, that was such an introduction.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I had so much fun writing that I cannot even
tell you.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I can't believe you actually managed to fit it all in.
I struggle. People say what tell us what you do?
And I'm like, so that.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Was I'm going to just I'm just going to keep
that on my phone and play that to people.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Oh yeah, let me be your hype woman. I mean,
you've done so much and I know that it's only
the beginning. In lots of ways, you've only just begun.
So are excited to see where this takes us. Because well, one,
we've done podcast before and we did not watch that clock.
There was a There was a lot of chat, wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, we got the wrap it up box movement from
the production team absolutely, yeah, a lot of times.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
But also because yeah, your experience and everything that's brought
you here today. I think you've done some very cool things,
which we will absolutely get into. But I'm I'm curious
as to whether, as someone who does a lot tries
new things, is it Type one diabetes that's given you
that drive or was that something that was already in
you and maybe type one diabetes has influenced it, if

(03:36):
you like, was.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
One hundred percent type one?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
I feel like like a lot of people, you know,
I was. I was twenty when I was diagnosed. So although, yeah,
and you wanted to do the acting, and you know,
I didn't have a comms career yet, but I'd always
been good at writing, and that kind of comm's career
was probably always going to be on the cards as
a day job. You know, I'm like a lot of

(04:01):
twenty year olds. I didn't really know what direction life
was taking me. I didn't really have it. I didn't
grow up with lots of confidence. I was actually the
kind of kid that told myself I couldn't do things
before I even tried. I really was my worst create.
I used to talk myself out of trying things. So,
you know, getting type one when I did, although there

(04:22):
was obviously a period where you know, I had to
go through that grief and that you know, letting it
wash over me and making you know, initially I thought
I'm definitely not doing anything now I've got type one diabetes,
Like this is it, It's all over. It's like anything
when you push yourself out of your comfort zone. I
think once you achieve or have a little mini success

(04:45):
at something, it gives you the confidence to try something
else and to try something else, And so all of
these maybe little secret dreams that have been bubbling inside
me all.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Of my life.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Once I started to get a hold of my diabetes
and I was like I can do this, I was like, well,
what else can I do? And yeah, and then you
try something, and I mean, yeah, I think the first
first thing, really, I did do some little good bits
of acting. Early on, I got a nice DEFs commercial,
you know, the classic intro into acting.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Oh, I need to dig that out.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Summer two thousand and nine.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
I had the the end line in the commercial, which
was I'll never forget. I had to say, it's about
finding out that the sofa you've been looking for is
a lot less than you thought.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Oh my god, I feel like I'm in the presence
of star guys.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
That was stunning.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
That was stunning, that little inflection at the end there.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
But yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Then then the next big thing I guess that I
did was Type one clothing and obviously, yeah, that ended
up on BBC Online News and various other places.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
And I think that that.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Was when I was like, okay, right, I can do stuff.
And what was so nice about it was that full
circle moment was because that was like me doing something,
giving something back to type one for everything that Type
one had given me in terms of my confidence.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, And isn't it interesting because when we receive type
one diabetes diagnosis or talk about diabetes in the world,
a lot of it is focused on what we can't do.
And you just said it there. It was like diabetes
is given back given me things. And it's funny that
this condition, as you say, actually all the things you

(06:40):
already wanted to do and the dreams you already had,
you know, acting and dancing and various things, it was
this thing that actually appeared to be a threat to
all of that that helped you move that forward. And
I think the confidence piece is so interesting because we

(07:00):
don't really get a chance to practice Type one, right,
and now it's not something it's a skill we have
to hone while we're actually living through it and making
these decisions from the get go. Can you take me
back a bit to the point where it did not
your confidence and it was all unknown kind of in
those first like weeks and months, as a lot of
people listening will know very well.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, So no, I had a difficult childhood growing up.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
I lost my mum to cancer when I was five,
and you know, my dad's idea of what was right
to do was to just work a lot. And you know,
he found a new wife who I guess maybe thought
like having another mother figure in my life would be
very helpful. We had a difficult relationship, me and my stepmum.

(07:50):
It wasn't easy, and so I left home early, you know,
and so I was completely on my own. Really, you know,
I was at UNI, but I was I wasn't, you know,
enveloped in the arms of my family as such during
my diagnosis, except for the fact that I had gone

(08:11):
back to visit just after Christmas. And what I will
credit them with is that they did notice I'd lost
a lot of weight. So it was them who encouraged
me to go and see a doctor. And you know,
I think they thought I had an eating disorder. And

(08:32):
I remember the doctor saying, you know, how do you
feel in yourself?

Speaker 2 (08:34):
And I said, I'm fine, I just you know, I'm.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Just really thirsty. And she went at and she did
a finger prick blood test, and you know, the next
thing I know, I'm in hospital. But I was twenty,
so I was on the adult pathway. No one was
allowed to stay with me in hospital, and quickly after
I left hospital, you know, I went back to living
on my own. And yeah, I didn't have I didn't

(09:01):
have a clue. I think it just you know, I
talk a lot about how I think twenty is too
young to be part of the adult pathway when it
comes to this kind of diagnosis. I think it should
be at least twenty five, maybe thirty, because I certainly
at that moment didn't feel grown up enough, even emotionally

(09:21):
developed enough to handle what I'd been told and.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
So scary.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
But you know, I remember being told in an early appointment,
I'll give yourself four units for a cheese sandwich. And
I actually didn't know it was two thousand and seven.
There was no social media groups either. I had no
idea it was to do with carbs, you know. And
I look back on that now and I go, I'm

(09:52):
probably more scared now looking back at it than I
was at the time of the time. I had no
idea how dangerous it was. But I was essentially guessing
my doses of insulin and wake up in the night
having huge hypos and sweatsweading the bed, But my liver
was kicking in and starting to save me, and I

(10:14):
would wake up the next morning at seventeen. So guess
what I was doing the next night. I was giving
myself more insulin. It's mind blowing and it's terrifying. And yeah,
I felt completely lost. I felt completely hopeless. I felt
very lonely because I didn't know anyone else who had
Type one. I thought I was a freak. And yeah,

(10:39):
it impacted other parts of my life.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Socially.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
I stayed with the boyfriend that I knew was cheating
on me because I thought I couldn't do any better.
And I felt like, actually, he was probably just with
me because he pitied me. And it wasn't until I
presented in hospital and crisis four years later, four years
after diagnosis, a nurse said, you know, maybe she should
do a carb counting course.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Oh, bless you, that's just so much. I mean, having
already been through quite a life to that point and
then having to take something on like this without you know,
the connections that we have now and I think it
says even more about who you are and your mission
and the woman that sits before me absolutely glowing. Yeah,

(11:25):
just how incredible you are for finding your way through.
Do you mind speaking a little bit about that crisis
moment in terms of what help then actually came through
and also how you started to build that confidence that
we've kind of mentioned already.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, I mean it's snowballed from that moment. I will
literally never ever forget being at where I was. I
was in Withinshaw Hospital in Manchester and it was the
diabetes nurse and the diabetes dietitian.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
She called in and she said that I showed up
at hospital.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
I think it was just for a normal appointment, but
they asked me how I was getting on and I
literally broke down, and I mean the kind of tears
that are you know. They I was very quickly recommended
to go to the GP to get some antidepressants at
the time as well, because it was not just sobbing.
I was probably having what they used to describe as
a nervous breakdown. And she said we need to get

(12:26):
her on Daphne, and I was willing to do whatever
it took at this point my life was just rock bottom,
and so I said, yeah, let's do it, whatever I
can do. And the turning point for me, and it
happened twice that year, and it started with this was
going on the Daphne course and sitting in a room

(12:47):
with other type ones and I remember it clear as day,
and I made friends with the girl who was sat
next to me, called Hazel. We're still friends to this day,
which is just testament to the community and the impact
it had on me. But yes, sitting in a room
full of other type ones and asking some questions to
them and they were like as clueless as I was

(13:08):
almost at that point, and we were going, oh god,
it's not just me, Thank goodness, learning how to dose? Learning,
how's that step onto the road of empowerment, learning to
look after myself? And very shortly after that, so this
was now twenty eleven, I posted a picture on very
early Instagram of me giving myself a shot and another

(13:33):
girl called Carrie found me. I don't know how she
found me, must have been the hashtag she reached out.
She's from New Zealand. Me and Carrie are still friends
to this day. And you know, Carrie said, I've got
this group on Facebook and it's girls who all live
with Type one from all over the world, and I
think you should join so very quickly. I had met
some of you know, people with Type one in real life,

(13:54):
and I got access to the online community and it's snowballed.
Just changed my life. And that's you know, especially for Carrie.
You know, I became very very close to her. We
messaged a lot. I was in this group. Anytime I
had a problem, I would say and there would be
ten people reply and say, oh, yeah, that happens to
me too, don't worry about it. And I actually I

(14:18):
named one of the pieces in my in my Type
one clothing collection Carrie because of her.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Oh my god, this is too beautiful for your average
Thursday morning. I'm like, wow, Okay, having lived your life
quite independently to that point, what was it like having
these connections that weren't only just oh, someone I get
on with in Uni? You know, driven by this this

(14:46):
condition that is and can be so lonely. It can
make you so vulnerable, It can make you question yourselves
in ways that other parts of your life never will.
Can you speak a little bit about what it was
like to and then have something in a way that
from what I'm sensing and what I have spoken to
you about before, that you perhaps didn't have before up

(15:09):
until that point.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, I think, and I don't know if this is
a trauma response from the way that I grew up,
but you know, I very much felt alone in my
whole childhood with you know, pre diabetes and my young
adult life. I didn't make my first friend until I
was sixteen. You know, she's still my best friend to
this day. So I'd always sort of told myself that

(15:32):
I could solve all of my problems by myself. You know,
it's fine, I've always done it. I've been fine, It's good.
I was probably the type of person who sniffed at
support groups or self help books or anything like that.
What do you need that for? So the real mindset
switch for me having access to, like you said, people

(15:54):
that weren't just friends and people you caught up with
people there was way more to it than that. Was
a me realizing actually the benefits of having support and
help and be trusting it, trusting that there were people
out there who would support me and who would be
my safety net. And you know, it was like that

(16:16):
thing you know the trust for I would have never
trusted anybody to fall back on ever until I got
access to the community and I thought, wow, there are
people in this world who will actually catch me. And
I think that is why got anything that I was like,
if I can do anything for the community now, if
I can show up at an event, if I could design

(16:37):
some clothes, if I can you know, speak to people,
whatever it is, I'm going to do that.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
And it changed me as a person. Yeah, yeah, I'm
sensing this really beautiful blend. We talk a lot about,
or we have had discussions about being independent women and
unapologetic women and things like that, and I am trying
to say sorry less and I'm still it bad, you know,
to look to you as someone who you know stands
in their space, but letting your walls down in that

(17:06):
way and realizing that it was safe to do. So
there's there's a softness about you as the person that
I've interacted with today, and that's a beautiful thing to
kind of hold space for both. It's a beautiful thing
to be able to do for yourself and know that
those two sides can exist. And yeah, I'm sort of
sensing that it's type one diabetes that gave you that.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, yeah, how.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
So that's kind of one level of connection and interaction.
What about when type one clothing blew up? Like, what
was that like to experience?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:40):
That was wild because I actually had you know, there
was no I wasn't setting out for it to be
that way. I had literally designed in my spare time
alongside my full time job, this twelve piece lady's work collection,
and it was really it was a passion project. It
was just because I, you know, was getting a bit

(18:02):
sick of you know, I was still on multiple daily injections.
I was living in sort of tracksuits and comfy clothes
because that made it easier to pull my top up,
pull my trousers down to give myself an injection. And
I was sick of going and hiding in bathrooms to
do it, because that's the unapologetic side of me was like, no,
why should I Why should I hide, and why should

(18:24):
I sort of perpetuate this feeling inside me that it
is something it is something to hide or that I
should be ashamed of.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
And so and the environment of taking an injection and
a toilet like it's often not pleasant, is it.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
It's awful, I think, I said in my interviews at
the time. You know, I've been to bars and I've
gone to a toilet to do an injection, and it's dirty,
and I can hear someone being sick in the toilet
next to me, and like, would do you want to
inject yourself in that setting? No, of course you wouldn't.
So I really designed twelve pieces of clothing that were
stuff I wanted to wear. Nice dresses, little like you know,

(18:59):
structured dresses, jumpsuits, jumpsuits especially, like, how do you do
an injection without taking your whole jumpsuit off and pulling
it up?

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Lordie, the amount? That's so funny. Yeah, I mean even
getting to a toilet and a jumpsuit let alone, then
like dosing a very important kind of medicine into your body.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, it's so yeah. So I designed these things. I
have a beautiful friend called Pavin who is an incredible seamstress,
and I said to her, can we make these?

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Can we just?

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Like, mate, one of each of these and I want
to take photos of them? And I got four of
my friends, three of my friends and myself who were
really good friends of mine, none of whom have Type
one to come and model my clothes with me. And
the first thing was their reaction, and they went, you know,
when you told us that you'd made these clothes, we

(19:51):
were expecting some really practical clothes. We'd wear these. And
I was like, good, that's the point, that's the whole point.
I still want to wear nice clothes. And so we
did this photoshoot and I made a little Instagram page
and I put it online really just to see what
people's reaction would be, because no one had done this before.
We're getting to an age now where there are lots

(20:12):
of very flattered sort of the ideas that have sprung
from the same spring, but no one had done it
at this point. And I put the pictures online and
I remember being at my job at Salford Royal Hospital
and the BBC rang me and they said, hey, we've
seen we've seen this Instagram page and we think this
is interesting. We want to do a video with you.

(20:34):
And I thought it was one of my friends playing
a prank on me. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
show up and this day, yeah, I'll be there, and
lo and behold, the BBC showed up with this little
two person camera crew and filmed it, and within less
than twenty four hours of it going online. I think
it's eleven o'clock on a Friday night, someone from the
BBC rang me and they said, we just thought you'd

(20:55):
like to know that your video has had a million
views and I was like sorry, what? And then within
three days it had three and a half million views
and Chelsea Clinton, Bill Clinton's daughter, had tweeted it and
written my name and I was like, well that escalated quickly.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Understatement it was.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
It was wild and I couldn't keep up with him.
And my brother messaged me on Facebook and he said,
babe in capitalized.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
And I'm thinking, oh my god, my brother's in trouble.
What's going on.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
I'm like okay, and he said Barack Obama's following you
and I was like sorry what.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
It really?

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (21:37):
I mean that that was a massive like I'd just
done this. Like I said, it's a passion project. It
was something for the community. So to have that reaction, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Again.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
It was one of those moments where I go, well,
I try my hand at anything now because it's you know, yeah,
it did great.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Did you ever like, what's your view on perfection and
sense of did you ever have that experience that a
lot of people go through, that you need to get
your numbers right all the time, you need to be
arranged all the time. Obviously we want to be in
ranged as much as possible, but we're all trying our best,
you know, and that looks different for different people. But

(22:18):
having this kind of experience of actually, from the point
of diagnosis, this has given me more than it's taken.
Did you ever get preoccupied with the idea of perfection?
Because it seems like trying and iterating and just giving
things a go is something.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
That you do.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
But what's your relationship between perfection and kind of the
daring to just try.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
I find the idea and the notion of chasing perfection
very limiting. I don't think anyone's perfect. I know for
a fact I'm far from pa effect and I'm just
hoping to get it right most of the time. And
that's with anything that's with my blood sugars, that's with
my work, that's with like you said, you know, just

(23:10):
giving things to go, Trying things like typewe clothing and
a reality series. You know, I'd never go into these
things expecting to win, but I go in there expecting
to try and have a good time and make the
best of it. And I think that's really oh, you know,
God forbid I get hit. I don't get hit by
a bus tomorrow, but I would like to go out

(23:32):
of here going. I gave everything my best shot, and
I had a good time doing it. And I think
that when you let perfection put you in between those
two little lines, as it were, like, that limits your
space to have fun and to try new things and
to give things a go. So I've never ever been

(23:53):
one to chase perfection. It's not something when I get
asked my diabetes advice, what do I reckon?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Perfection?

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Is?

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Now there's something that I advocate for and I don't
think it.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
I don't think it should be.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, I'd just love to hear it, because I do
think it can be very hard to step out of
that pressure when the alarms are screaming and our targets
are so tangible, they're so black and white, they're so defined.
But pushing, you know, pushing for curiosity, experimentation, play, having fun,
Like I just love that have a good time and

(24:25):
make the best of it. It's not only relevant to life.
That is kind of how I see typewod diabetes Like,
I'm doing the best I can, but I also have
a life to live. So it's where pushing or exploring
where my boundary is comfortable in terms of I'm going
to say yes to that thing and I'm going to
say yes to a different thing on a different day.

(24:46):
Because my priorities around my health and my life, they're
kind of always swirling around. And I just love to
hear you say that. I think to help people who
do feel that pressure, it is a nice reminder that
those tools are brilliant, but let's not be completely went
to them in that way.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, And I remember speaking to the lovely Pete Davies
on my podcast.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Pete, Oh my god, he's like my hero.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
The softest spoken man, just so lovely to listen to.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
He's just I know, like I need him to do
like some like cbb's bedtime stories and just you know,
I can just fall asleep. But you know, Pete is
out there, he's living his life. He's healthy, he's complication free,
he's in his seventies, he's had it since he was three.
I think I remember that rightly, and you know, he

(25:37):
told me that for a long period during his childhood,
they didn't have the tools to be as perfect as well.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
They were given.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know, it was a range, and it was quite
a wide range, like aim for this test once a week,
you know. So I think that is really testament. Yes,
it's wonderful to have the tools that we have, and
it probably saves a lot more lives than we're able
to be saved back in those days.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
But you know, it is testament that you can do it.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
You can still be climbing mountains age seventy and living
the life that Pete does and being so fabulous when
you've kind of just given it a ballpark figure and gone, okay,
we're going to aim for the best and hope for
the best kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
So he's a great example of that.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, I love that, And I don't know about you.
I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the more you've tried,
the more you've like I guess it's about again, it's
going back to building confidence. And actually Type one diabetes
has given you that in a lot of ways, because
we don't really have any choice but to try. Every day,
we have to get up and do this and trying

(26:43):
more and doing more has actually made you more in
tune with kind of what's worth the push and when
to pull back. Like I know that you do a
lot of things. What have you learned about those boundaries
and when to say no for your health versus when
to say yes because you want to go out there
and live. I think that for me, it's a very

(27:06):
emotional reaction. And you know, if something I don't want
to sound what's the word hedonistic, but if it, if
it feels good, then I'm going to keep doing it.
And you know blood sugar's wobble a bit, then you know,
you just make the best and manage the best that
you can. If it doesn't feel good, if something in

(27:27):
my gut is telling me this isn't worth it, then
I'm going to remove myself from the situation because what
what in that situation?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Why would I risk my health?

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Why would I risk my my blood sugars for something
that I'm kind of going I'm not sure that I'm
gonna I'm going to get out of this or this
I'm going to enjoy this in the way that I
would want you anyway. So it's a very kind of
visceral emotional thing for me, where I go, you know,

(27:58):
that's that's the moment where I trust my gut and
I let my heart lead me and say, risk assessment
says no, Risk assessment says.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yes, love it Natalie's personal assessment. And I guess we're
assessing risk every day.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
Right, yeah, through that, Yeah, and I think that we
should consider ourselves experts at it. You know, we live
with this every day. We know most of the time
better than anybody else. Okay, listen, There's always going to
be those days where you get caught out always, that's
just the way that this is. But we know, and

(28:41):
I think I can say sometimes when I've made a mistake,
I knew that was a mistake before I did it,
and I should have trusted myself on that one. And
you know, you get more expert as it as time
goes on. And now I do I listen to that
inner voice he said that says this doesn't feel right.
And this could apply to so many things in life.
You know, whether it's activities, whether it's relationships, whether it's

(29:05):
whatever it is, whatever the situation is, If it doesn't
feel right now, I just remove myself. And I I'm
also trying to get better at not apologizing for that.
I still apologize sometimes, but I'm kind of going no,
you know, actually I don't need to apologize for removing
myself from a situation that isn't good for me.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah. Nice, And just while we're kind of in this world,
I want to talk a bit about structure because you've
tried lots of things. You very rarely had a nine
to five, and if you have, you've then had a
five to nine on top of it. You've traveled. Your routine,
if you like, is constantly kind of moving and evolving.
So do you think you slash your diabetes actually thrives

(29:49):
on that kind of less less routine, less structure or
are there ways that you've found you've needed to kind
of implement it into your life a bit to help
you with living with Type one.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
I think that my diabetes and I are in a
constant little battle with routine where my diabetes like, please
just do this at.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
This time, and I'm like, no, I can't. It's not
feasible today.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Sorry, plane to catch.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
But you know, yeah, it's like anything, you know, whether
you have a routine or your routine is there is
no routine. You know, over time you learn to adapt
and you learn how to how to deal with the
routine or the lack of routine being a routine, and so,

(30:40):
you know, I know what situations are going to be
likely to trigger X, Y or Z, and I'm kind
of semi prepared for it in the back of my head.
Preparedness is always the key with type one diabetes. It
can go run for a multitude of reasons, and so
I think just having your backup and your backups backup

(31:01):
is always going to be the key. But you know,
I do find some ways of adding bits of routine
into my non routine. You know, Like I like certain foods,
so even though I might be eating them at different
times of day and sometimes I might be eating them
on the go or in a foreign country, you know,

(31:23):
I tend to like to eat the same things, so
that gives me some stability. And yeah, you know, I
know the kind of situations when my quartzol is going
to run high. Luckily, I have a great one, which
is that my cortisol responses that I go sky high,

(31:44):
and that happens when I'm at an airport.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
So if I'm running for a plane, I don't go.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Hypo because the quarter's all response overtakes the running, and
so I tend to go high before rather than go alone.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Then I can sit on the plane and calm down.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
And you know, if I start to drop at that point,
I'm sitting down and I've got food, so you know.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I make it work.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
We take the winds, we take what we can.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Absolutely. Yeah, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Do you find like over time, what's your experience with
hypo symptoms? Do you still get pretty pretty intense hyposymptoms
or not? Really?

Speaker 3 (32:22):
No, I'm for the most part very hyper unaware, which
is why I am obsessed with my tech and I
don't want to take it off ever. I have tan lines.
I don't know if you can see them from my decks.
Calm yet, yeah, lovely patch because you know, even if

(32:43):
I am out in the sun or in another country,
my tech is staying on. So you know that the
tech is because hypos. Yeah, they can, just I can.
I can have some very quick ones. But to saying that,
and I remember saying very recently on one of the
Typecast shows to somebody, I prefer being low to high

(33:08):
because I feel so much worse. I feel those symptoms
where it's being low. I don't really feel it and
then I can just treat it. Literally a week after
I said that I had such a bad hypo that
I felt all the symptoms. I was shaking, I was
sweating my brain. I was like, my brain is starting
to shut down. I can't grasp what's going on around me.

(33:29):
And I felt bad for a long time after the
hypo and that kind of went well. Serves you right
for saying that you didn't mind the lows and I
was like, well, yeah, just the lows just just gave
me a kick up the butt there, just to remind
me that they can feel and do feel really really crappy.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah. I always say, like type one diabetes, no matter
how long I've lived with it, like it's forever humbling me.
Just when I think, oh yeah I get this, like.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
Keeps you humble.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Oh I'm sorry that that is Yeah, that's just not nice.
I think I answered the same as you, and I
was on your podcast, which I will lick below for
people to listen to. That hypos are obviously more threatening
and they make me feel so vulnerable, especially in the night,
like I really on the tech like you, because like
you like flying solo or being independent, there aren't a

(34:26):
lot of people around when you're going through these things,
and that doesn't mean that someone else is going to
fix that for you, but you know, it does provoke
a lot of vulnerability, I think. And but highs, when
they get into my skin and my cells, like I
can feel it, it's like a what I'm thinking of
demental in Harry Potter, like sucks the soul out of

(34:48):
me when I'm stuck there, and I just.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah, yeah, that is nice.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
I feel sick, i feel heavy, my legs feel like lead,
I've got a head, I feel like rage, I feel
everything like all of it happens with the highs. And
I think what's so frustrating about the highs is they
do take longer to come down. But you know, you

(35:13):
can get out of a low reasonably quickly most of
the time. The highs it's that waiting. It's that waiting
for it to come down and for you to feel
good again. It's your patience has never been my strong point,
So one.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Of this, we're ready to move on with our lives.
That insulin could just get to work, that'd be great.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
Like I'm already on FIASP on a pump, which is
unusual normally when people are on a pump, you'll be
prescribed and over rapid, not fias I actually had a
telephone appointment this year with my consultant who was like,
this once faster than fiasce, if you want to put
that in your pump, And I was like, yes, yes

(35:59):
I do.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Wow, have you switched?

Speaker 3 (36:03):
I haven't actually switched yet, no, no, but you know,
if they gave me the opportunity to switch next time
I went in, I would.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I would definitely try it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
This episode of Type one on one is sponsored by Insult,
the makers of omnipodtube free insulin pump therapy. I've personally
used pod therapy to manage my type one diabetes for years,
and using Omnipod five automated insulin delivery has improved my
diabetes management significantly, with less diabetes decisions and of course

(36:37):
no multiple daily injections. How well, Omnipod five automatically adjust
my insulin every five minutes to help keep me in range,
allowing life outside of type one diabetes to get bigger.
If you want to know more, head to omnipod dot com. Okay,
so I'd love to chat to you a little bit

(36:59):
about living with ADHD if that's okay. It's something that
you've spoken about a little bit in relation to living
with type one, but it's not something I've discussed before
with anyone on the podcast. So do you mind talking
me through your journey to getting your diagnosis? First of all?

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah, So.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
I've long believed, and I think recent research has proved
me right that it's not just necessarily something that you're
born with. ADHD can be trauma induced. And obviously I
was five when my mom passed, when all those lovely
electrical connections are being made in your brain, and I

(37:42):
do feel like if you look back at a lot
of my school reports and things like that, they were like, yeah,
you know, intelligent has promised, but you know, lax focus, lacks,
you know, root jumps from one thing to another, and
as a kid, you don't really think about it. But
as an adult and I'm trying to find my own
way in life, there were lots of things that I

(38:04):
was aware of that I did that I couldn't help,
such as my brain jumping ahead in conversations and then
me blurting out things and speaking over people.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
In fact, I got in trouble for it.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
And make me Prime Minister, which was just before I
got my diagnosis, and I spoke over Jackie Weaver, the
legendary Jackie Weaver from the Hand for Parish Council video
and got in trouble at our press launch, and I
knew I was doing it, and it gave me great anxiety.
I felt like I was a bad person for doing it,

(38:40):
but I couldn't help myself. And then you know, I
added in all the other little things that I would do,
Like I could pass, I could think, oh, put this
down somewhere, and I would pass the object from one
hand to the other hand and immediately forget and put
it down, pick it up with one hand and put
it down with the other hand in the same place.
And you know, I remember some members of my family going, well,

(39:01):
we're all forgetful. And you know, there's a lovely quote
online that says, yeah, well, we all get up to
pee in the night, but if you're doing it sixty
times a night, it's a problem.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
And that was me.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
I was like, this is not just forgetful, this is
not just disorganized. This is an issue. And so I
had actually started to try and go down the NHS
route of getting a diagnosis prior to make me prime minister,
and it was very long, especially from adult and luckily

(39:32):
I won't make me prime minister. So I got a
nice little cash prize and I was like, I am
going private because I think the Jackie Weaver think was
the last draw I'd done that thing that I was
so embarrassed of speaking over somebody and jumping ahead in
the conversation on TV.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
And so I was like, right, this is I'm going private.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah, and I got a diagnosis and I did initially
try medication.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
It wasn't for me. It it was.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Yeah, it was very strange, and you know, it did
help me focus. It did help to do the things
that it's supposed to do, but I felt like I
got a lot of crashes afterwards. It was like you
the thing, you know, focus and do everything you want
to do. And then I was just like in the acting,
I was like, I'm dead. So I stopped with the

(40:23):
medication and I thought, you know what, since I was diagnosed,
I went straight on medication and I didn't have a
period where I was diagnosed and not on medication. And
I just want to try that and I want to
see what I can do to put practical things in
place to help myself that doesn't give me this jittery
and then crash feeling that the medication did. And just

(40:47):
to give myself grace, I think is the main thing.
I just kind of went. Now that I have this,
you know, whether it means something to anybody else or not,
it means I can stop bullying myself, stop telling myself
I'm disorganized, I'm lazy, I'm a chatterbox who thinks too
much of myself and jumps into people's conversations and just

(41:12):
kind of go, there's a reason for this, and be kind.
It's what I've I've had a few people jump into
my inbox on social media to say they've also got
type one on ADHD, and what is my advice? And
I can say my only advice from me personally is
give yourself grace and try and put practical things in

(41:32):
place to help yourself, whether that be notes around the house,
you know, a door hanger that tells you not to
forget your diabetes kit, whatever it is, just just do
that for yourself and just be kind to yourself. And
I think that we've already got enough going on. They
say we make an extra one hundred and eighty decisions

(41:54):
a day or I don't know if that's true.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Living with type one.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
ADHD thrown into the mix as well is a lot,
so grace, give it to yourself and give it your
comes back to the beginning of our conversation, give it
your best shot.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
I was going to ask you for some practical things
that having this diagnosis has helped you implement, and you've
just given a couple. There are there any more specifically
related to type one that have helped you, because there's
a lot to remember. Like you say, there's a lot
of decisions, and there's a lot of organization and planning
that comes with living with type one. So just for

(42:33):
the benefit of the listener, is there anything else that
brings to mind that has helped you from a practical
point of view?

Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yeah, I think tech has definitely helped. And you know,
we all are different when it comes to what we
want on tech, so I'm not necessarily everyone has to
go on the same closed loop system that I'm on.
Whether you're using a smart pen that can tell you
what you've just dosed and when, or whether it's like
my pump that can tell me I've given just given

(43:00):
myself a dose and at what time and what it was.
I know when I was on MDI I was forever
giving myself an injection, and then I would sit there
a minute later or have many seconds later, with a
pen in my hand and a needle on and go
did I just give myself that injection or not? Because
I actually I can't remember. And that's a scary position
to be in, because that's the position where you go,

(43:22):
do I give myself another shot and risk going low?
Or do I assume that I've given myself the shot
and end up going high. So tech has been a
massive benefit for me in that particular situation, and I
think there are lots of options like I just mentioned
in terms of whether it's a pump or a smartpen
or whatever that can help you with that particular problem. Yeah,

(43:46):
definitely the hanger on the doorknop. I think there is
somebody online I've forgotten their hand, or there is somebody
online who sells little hangers that says, don't forget your
diabetes kit. Oh, definitely invest in one of those. I have.
I have gone to diabetes events before and forgotten my
diabetes kit. And the only saving grace there is that

(44:08):
I've got there and everybody else has Type yes.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
So the best place to forget is to go going
on your way to a type Absolutely, about five people
whipped out their pens and were like, do you want
some of mine?

Speaker 2 (44:21):
It's like sharing contrabant.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Amazing, and only the people in that room will understand
what that means. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you think that
your prior diagnosis of type one helped you give yourself
grace with the diagnosis of ADHD? Like going through that
experience in a different way, But I'm sure there were
echoes correct me if I'm wrong, help you a little

(44:45):
bit in terms of navigating another health challenge.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Absolutely, And it helped me to advocate for myself in
terms of saying I wanted to come off medication as well,
because I think old me, prior to Type one me
somebody who would have gone, well, the doctor said this,
so I should do this. And I've learned over a
period of incidences, you know, whilst living with Type one

(45:12):
that actually, sometimes you know what's right for you. Often
you know what's right for you and you have to
you have to stand up to make those decisions. So
I think Type one me learnt that and became very
good at that. And you know, it was twenty twenty two,
late twenty twenty two that I got my ADHD diagnosis,
so fifteen years after type one diagnosis. So by the

(45:34):
time I got the ADHD, I was very experienced at
advocating for myself and very experienced and going, actually, this
is the care pathway I want to take with this,
and I'm going to try with this. And you know,
it's like trying a new diabetes therapy. If it doesn't
work for you, you can go back. You know, you
can go back to what you want. But if you

(45:56):
have a feeling inside you that something else is going
to work better for you, you have that right, and
you know you should trust your gut to say, actually,
this is this is the path I want to take.
And I feel very happy that I was able to
do that with my ADHD. I'm very happy that I
was able to implement things like giving myself grace and

(46:19):
coming up with my own ways of being my own
safety net and protecting myself.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Ah, I want to give you a cob you will
say truly inspiring to you talk about just the ways
that you've been able to kind of do that for yourself,
but also not block out and block away and push
away the rest of the world. You know, to be

(46:47):
advocating for yourself and asking for things and sharing bits
of your journey, that is a very vulnerable thing and
power to you. And yeah, just to your point about
trying things, the realation that I could go back onto
injections was what finally made me say yes to a pump,
or got me over the line with saying yes to

(47:08):
a pump, because I was like, I'm not blowing up
everything behind me, like I can just go back. And
I think I've taken that through a lot of my
life decisions. Just because you say yes to something doesn't
mean you close the door behind you completely. A lot
of the time, I think it does feel like that,
and that does help me. I think, you know, just

(47:32):
just take the next step a lot of the time.
So if that resonates for anyone, then yeah, let's talk
about make me a prime minister, just because you've mentioned
it a few times. And I know how grueling working
in TV is as someone who works in production teams,
and I know how long the hours are, and I

(47:52):
know how quickly things can change. I know how sporadic
and absolutely chaos the catering can be, and also how
incredible it can be, which is almost more.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Of a problem sometimes.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Yeah, So because it's fun to talk about, I'd love
to hear about your experience, what made you go on there,
and also just handling type one diabetes on a TV
set with long hours, and also you know, kind of
being representative for it on a TV show.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
Yeah, I mean, I yeah, I am a little bit crazy.
I'm sure people have already worked this out by this
point in the conversation. I think that period of not
having confidence as a child and then going into an
adulthood and developing all this confidence from Type one, I've
kind of got this mindset now. It's like a spring

(48:42):
that had been pulled back and I just go, yeah,
I'm going to I'm going to do it. I didn't
think reality TV was going to be one of those things.
It was actually my brother who put me forward for
type for make me prime Minister. He well, he saw
that he saw the casting advert and it said could
you do a better than our politicians? And he screenshot

(49:02):
it and he sent it to me with three words
that just said go, go Go. Interestingly, when I won.
He was there at the final and he came up
and hugged me and I said, you really thought you
really thought I could get on this show? And he
looked at me and he said, no, I thought you
could win. So my brother knows me very very well.

(49:22):
Bless him.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
But yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
It was something that I went, yeah, let's give it
a girl, let's have a good time, let's make the
best of it. And I was probably quite naive in
terms of just how long those days were. They were
a minimum twelve hour filming days. And I mean that's
camera onto, camera off. That doesn't include getting up in
the wanning showering, doing your hair and makeup and getting
on set, or getting home and trying to decompress somewhat

(49:49):
before you go to sleep, and do it again the
next day. And we would do three to five days
back to back and get a day off. Three to
five days back to back. Weren't allowed to go home
on our days af in this bubble with the production
crew and the other cast members, and you know, I
realized pretty quickly it was stressful.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
It was the.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
Hours on your feet when you're filming a bit where
they want you to walk into a building and you've
got to go back and forth and do it ten
times while they get the shot, or whether it was
the fact that it was a competition and I thought naively, oh,
we're all going to have fun, and there were some
people who were there to win at any cost, and
you know, they were making life difficult for me, which
I had to go back and go.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
If they didn't.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
Think I was competition, then they wouldn't be focused on me.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
So just remember that and now it's fine.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Also, you one, guys, that was my thing when I
went home, and I said, don't react, don't let them
see you upset, don't do anything back.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
To them, but win. That was what they said.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Thank you to those people for giving me the motivation
to do more and try harder and.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Get the thing.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
But yeah, so it was. It was emotional, It was
physically grueling. It was in terms of the hours grueling, tiring.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
And then they need the catering.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
At first, the production team obviously told the caterers she's
Type one diabetic, and they must have thought that meant
I don't have I can't have carbs, so they were
giving me these like carb free meals and I was like, please,
I'm dying over here, Please give me some potato or
rice or something. So I had to advocate for that
as well. But the best thing to come out of

(51:35):
it I was sat in the green room very early
on and I had my tech on and ire were
quite a few episodes where I did wear sleeveless tops.
Probably not the most politician thing, but I did because
I wanted to get my dex come on TV. And
in a couple of episodes you do see it. But
I also it also made it obvious to another member
of the cast, another one of the candidates, Veritie, who

(51:57):
looked at me in the green room on like day
two and went are you Type one?

Speaker 2 (52:01):
And I went are you?

Speaker 3 (52:04):
So I made one of my diabestes on that show,
Veriti who also happened to be Type one. So it
was that it's the take, right, But how incredible, Yeah said,
there were tens of thousands of applicants, there were twelve
of us who ended up on the show, and for
two of us to be living with type one diabetes,

(52:25):
I just thought was probably speaks to how compassionate we
are as people that there were two of us who
wanted to go out there and fight for the rights
of the people.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
So h yeah, and how special for you to be
able to share that journey with someone as well, even
those ridiculous things like you say, and having to advocate,
you know, you've got someone who's like in your corner
in that way as well. I'm wondering with that advocating
and that energy that's required to find your voice and
use that voice that you're kind of forced into in

(52:58):
certain situations with doing that for type one diabetes, and
then I'm assuming now navigating that a bit more recently
with ADHD. What do you wish people knew about ADHD
that you feel isn't talked about.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
So one of the really strong things for me, and
this is where I think, you know a lot of
people will know if they know a bit about this subject,
that ADHD and autism spectrum disorder overlap and there's a
lot of symptoms that can be a symptom of one
or both. And one of the things that I struggle with,

(53:41):
and I know you got to see this when we
were in Dubrovnik together, was I struggle massively with rejection
sensitivity dysphoria. I find it very hard to be vulnerable
and when I do, I automatically am looking for some
kind of confirmation that that was okay. My need for

(54:05):
those kind of social cues is huge. And yeah, so
this you know what I do. You know, I know
that a lot of people on social media take things
that face value and will go, oh, well, she does
it because it's easy for her, or because she's confident,

(54:26):
or because she's X, Y and Z. You know, I
have continuously pushed myself out of my comfort zone as
somebody who as a kid talk themselves out of things,
and it is still hard. It's very hard for me
to be vulnerable. It's very hard for me to talk
about myself, I guess, which is why I like to

(54:49):
talk about type one diabetes in terms of community and
in terms of what you know, I want for everyone.
But this is not this is I've that is something,
you know, type one diabetes. I've found ways of making
it easier for myself to manage ADHD in general. I
found ways of making it. This particular symptom is something

(55:13):
that's never got easier for me. And it's something that
I do because I believe in the power of community,
because of what the community has done for me. But
it's not something that comes naturally to me. It's not
something that I you know, I will sit and overthink
every word that I've ever said a million times two

(55:34):
years down the line. But what it's given me in
terms of the community is I wouldn't take that back.
So I get something out of it. But it's still
it's a struggle. It's a real struggle. So I don't
want anyone to kind of take this and look at

(55:56):
me and say, oh, well, she can do that, because
that's easy for her, it's not easy for me. And
if it's something that you want to try and it's
not easy, if you just know that it's not easy
for me either, and you can do it. And so
that's kind of what I would like other people, especially
other people who might feel like they've got similar feelings
inside them, they can still push themselves out of their

(56:19):
comfort zone and do it.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Yeah, I think power to you. Thank you so much
for sharing that your vulnerability is a superpower. And the
way that you articulate yourself and the vulnerability that you're
willing to show in spite of those feelings is I
think all the more powerful for it. Yeah, just like
super inspiring message as well, what is your mission? If

(56:45):
you could kind of sum it up? And you've spoken
so incredibly eloquently and powerfully about the drive that you have.
If you could sum that up, what's moving you forward
and helping you to face these challenges head on and
be self aware enough to know what you need as
you go through this journey of life? What is the mission?

Speaker 3 (57:11):
I think all of the things that I've done, whether
it be advocacy or Type one clothing or the you know,
the reality show, the nature of it was the only
reason I did it, you know, was the politics aspect
of it. It boils down to something that I guess
has just always been a mes since childhood, which is

(57:33):
that I wanted to leave this world a better place
than the one I came into. I found it a
very difficult world as a kid. I'm getting emotional. Sorry,
I found it a very difficult world, and I just, yeah,
I just wanted to leave it better than I found it.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
Sorry, I've got chills. I'm so sorry for me. Cry.
And you absolutely are do this to each other.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
We make each other cry, and it's like we keep
doing this to ourselves.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Jen, Oh my love. I You're absolutely the embodiment of
that mission. And as I said, I'm excited to see
what's to come because you've done so much. But I
absolutely can see and tell and know in my core
that there's so much.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
More it's coming.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Yeah, coming, absolutely absolutely, And now I really want to
give you.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
But you know, it's thanks to It's thanks to everyone.
You know, when I take it back to what I
said at the beginning, you can have a feeling and
I want to do something, but having the confidence to
do it is entirely another thing. And I would not
have the confidence to do any of the things that
I'm doing had it not been for that year where
I was introduced to the community and I felt that

(59:00):
safety net. So yeah, I mean, it's what I do
is not just my accomplishment. It's the accomplishment of everybody
who has touched my life at any point along the way.
And I'm just I'm so grateful. And the more that
I achieve, hopefully the more it does for everybody else.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
That's it. That's the whole point.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
Oh my love, I've seen you walk through a room
and connect with everyone from you know, the young kid
to the person who's been living with Type one for
sixty seventy years, you have a real way of connecting.
And I think it's all of these experiences and your
self awareness of your cues, your triggers, your insecurities, and

(59:46):
the confidence that helps you with that. With that, what
do you hope people take away from your content and
the things you're putting out there and the things that
you're doing.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
I think that, But all of the things that I
have found in myself, what I learn, especially from being
enveloped by the Type One community, was that I was
not alone.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
You know, prior to.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
Finding this community when I said my diagnosis, one of
the things was that I felt very lonely and I
felt like these things were only happening to me. It
became so apparent when I connected with the community that
these things.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Are happening to all of us.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
And so in just the same way, all of these
things that I've found within myself are things that people
have within them too. So whatever it is that I see,
I resonate with it in people. I resonate with the
struggles that they're having, but also with their hopes and
their dreams and their ambitions, and so I just my

(01:00:54):
message to them is just that, like anything I'm doing
is just hopefully to inspire, hopefully to show you that
you can do it. God it, If I can do it,
anyone can, really, truly, anyone can. So that's what I
like to do when I connect with people, and I

(01:01:15):
like to I just like them to know how much
I care about them and how much they are cared
about and that they're not alone. Because that was the
most profound thing that the community did for me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Oh, my love, Okay, let's let's get a silly question
out there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
I feel so bad. I'm just no, I'm just checking.
I'm trying to check my makeup in the little tiny.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
You're stunning, my love. We said before this, it's like
this is this maybe therapy. This may be therapeutic. I
feel like at least it's cathartic. We're getting that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
We're getting it out. Hopefully anyone watching is getting it out. Yeah,
have a good cry, do whatever you need to do.
It's it feels good afterwards.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Yeah. And in terms of making the best of it,
know what was it, Have a good time and make
the best of it. So tell me about not having
a good time. When do you feel your most free?
When do you feel your most alive, Like what what
do you do just to have fun and kind of
take off this weight that a lot of us are carrying.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Yeah, so an interesting story. It's actually pre diabetes. So
I was definitely a free spirit even before diabetes. I
when I was eighteen, My stepsister loves to tell this story.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
I went into town.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
I happened to have my passport like many eighteen year
olds do when you need your ID for a drink,
and I bought a flight to Ibitha and I just
went and it was a one way flight, and I
got there, and then I found somewhere to stay while
I was there, and I ended up getting a job
in one of the clubs and I stayed for the season.
And that is that is classic, classic Nat needing to

(01:03:01):
be free.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
That's how I feel good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
Nowadays, I'm a little bit less spontaneous because you know,
you have to be prepared with the insulin and all
the rest of it. But as you know, as you
said before, I do occasionally just take off to La
I rent a car, I get myself a little airbnb
home so I'm not in hotels and I just go
and live and you will catch me, you know, driving

(01:03:26):
up and down Santa Monica with the windows down and
the music up.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
I love it live in your own movie.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
That's it, unapologetically you and I love it so much.
What's the wildest diabetes related situation you've been in? But
like fun, not a scary one, because we all know
what they feel like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Okay, wild is diabetes situation? Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I mean I have this ability to find the Type
one anywhere that I am, and I love that. I
even you know, we have tech which makes it easy
to spot, but even without the tech. So I think
my best story was twenty eighteen. I was visiting Boston.

(01:04:19):
It was summer.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
It was glorious.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
If anyone's ever been to Boston, they have very definite seasons,
very warm summers and very very cold winters.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
And it was hot.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
And I was on the main shopping street in Boston,
were all the famous shops, and it's busy, it's busy, busy.
And I'd gone there and I'd arranged to meet up
with another Type one that I knew from online, and
so she and I met up. We went for coffee,
and we walked down the street and we see this
chalk board. It's actually not advertising a cafe. It's advertising

(01:04:49):
a shop or with their clothes. But the chalk boards
said like zero sugar, zero carbs or something like for
whatever reason on the chalk, we need a picture with that.
So we're standing there and we're like, well, who do
we get to take our picture? You know what we
need to So we're looking all these people walking past,
and the girl that I'm with says, well, look, she

(01:05:11):
points to this couple. Oh, let's pick him because he's
nice and tall. He'll take a good picture. So we
stopped this couple and we said, you know, do you
mind taking a picture of us? So they stop and
we're making small talk and he's taking the picture and
he said, so, how do you two know each other?
And we said, well, we've we've just met, but we
follow each other online because we both have type one diabetes.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
And the girlfriend puts her hand up and she goes
me too.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
Oh the people we could have stopped on this street,
and we were like, well, get.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
In the picture then. So there's actually three.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
Of us in this picture with this chalkboard, and it
was just the most We're just blown away by that
energy and how we found each other because we picked
him because he was tall of anyone.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
We could have. But yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
It was beautiful and it's a picture that I still
treasure to this day.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
It's lovely.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Oh that's lovely that you can be across the other
side of the world and we're not alone, like we're
not well. I was in Manchester, actually speaking to a
Manchester lady. I was in the smallest restaurant I've possibly
ever been in in my life. I think it only
seated like eight people, and it was lunchtime, so it
was only half force.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
There's literally four of us, me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
MYX partner and another pair at the table next to me.
And this omnipod beep went off and I was like,
that's weird. I'm not due to expire yet. And I
like pulled my bag down and this I felt this
like tap on my shoulder and I looked up and
the woman at the next table turned to me and
she was like, no, no, no, it's mine and who
was like, whoa are you kidding me? And like that

(01:06:49):
has happened. I mean, I know that cases are increasing,
but it's happened more frequently than you might think. When
you do feel like you're the in person in the
world living with this. I went through airport's curity the
other day and I was like saying, oh, you know,
I've got an insulin pump on and they were like,
that's absolutely fine. I haven't got an insulin pump on,
but I've got a censor. And this guy lived the

(01:07:11):
type one, the airport security guard, and I was like,
just brings me the nicest little just little moments, you know,
and it's like, I don't want anyone else to be
living with this. But that was a really nice interaction.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
I know.

Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
I have to stop myself from going that's amazing when
someone else said that, No, I don't mean it's amazing
that you've got it. I mean it's amazing that we're
here meeting each other.

Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
Yeah, I love it so much. Actually, someone did sometimes
you get this, Oh you know it's okay. Yeah me too,
Yeah I've got it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
One time someone just turned around and went, yeah, shit,
isn't it like you know what, You're not wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
You are not wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
No, no, but you know we'll laugh about it at
some point later.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
Yeah. Absolutely, And look at who it's made us, Look
at who it's So what is next for Natalie the
Natalie Baumann Empire.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
Shall we say, Well, we'll see. I'm still I'm still
working on this acting thing. I still want to see
more representation not just of Type one, but of the
types of people with type one. And i mean, listen,
just as I am anyway with the you know, the

(01:08:26):
mix that I am and things. I don't see many
people that look like me on TV or if they
do their latina or this, you know. So yeah, I
would like to try and keep pushing that that acting
thing and see if I can get get some roles
where I'm allowed to be my authentic diabetic self.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
But we'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
I'm still doing lots of fundraising. I am doing the
million Step Challenge this summer for Diabetes UK, so I'm
getting my steps in doing that. And I'm still I'm
going to be doing season two of Typecast the podcast,
so I will be interviewing many, many more wonderful people
who live with type one. So for anyone who is

(01:09:10):
not watched or subscribed or seen it yet, please go
over and check that out because the guests are I'm
so grateful for their their bravery and their openness and
yeah for just being fabulous.

Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
Yeah, wonderful and all of those links and everything, but
also additionally, where can people watch your journey unfold? Where
can people find you as you go on to the
next exciting adventure.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
So you can find me on Instagram as miss Balmain,
on TikTok I think is real, Miss Balmain typecast is
at the type cast pod on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
And yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
Will update people as much as is humanly possible.

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
An incredible woman on an incredible mission, being authentically herself,
having fun, making the best of it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
That's the most important bit. Have fun.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
Yeah, I have one more question for you. What would
you go back and say to not even twenty year
old Natalie who was just diagnosed, but that young Natalie
who really struggled with what she found in the world
and how things felt. What would you go back and
say to her now sat here as the woman we
have today.

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
I would go back and say, the world has so
much more than you think it does, and there is
so much love out there even when you feel like
there isn't, and you will find it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
You will find it. Don't give up on looking for it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Giving you all the love and and just all the
hugs and all the thank you. Thankkeep going so much.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
Thank you for having me on. Thank you for this
free therapy.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
You are so welcome. It's always just wonderful to chat
to you and you Jen, and I hope that I
catch you again this summer. Let's get the Type one
on one times typecast collaboration happening asap. I hope you
enjoyed this episode of Type one on one. Please remember
that nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken

(01:11:33):
as medical advice. I'm definitely not a healthcare professional. If
you like what you hear, hit subscribe and do leave
a little review on iTunes if you have time. It
really helps to spread the word about type one diabetes.
And thank you so much for listening.