HAPPY FAMILIES: Angela and Donald Allison and daughters
Published on Sat Feb 12 09:30:00 GMT 2011
A mum is selling her family home to free up cash to launch a national charity to help families affected by diabetes.
Angela Allison, 41, of Hutton, near Preston, was spurred on to make the sacrifice after daughter Claudia was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes a couple of years ago after becoming ill and losing weight.
Angela, who is married to Donald and mum to Isabella, 12, Darcy, six, Felicity, four and Purdey, two, has set up the organisation Diabetes Power to raise awareness of diabetes.
She now wants to get charitable status and turn it into a national cause, but says she needs funds to get it established and drive it forward.
They have put their £390,000 family home up for sale and are planning to move into a less expensive home that needs renovation and Angela will use the extra money to achieve her charitable dream.
Angela said: “Claudia was diagnosed with Type 1 on May 1, 2008.
“Since that day, my husband and I have had to fight so many battles, most of them unexpected and, in our belief, very unnecessary.
“The aim of the group is to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes.
“It is only through raising awareness that we will educate and gain the understanding of the wider public and the health professionals and hopefully help people identify the condition at it’s early stage.
“I am willing to sell our family home to establish Diabetes Power as a charity and push it forward.
“Our current home is a detached cottage with four bedrooms, three receptions, an en suite and a downstairs cloakroom.
“It beautiful and we love it. But I am a firm believer that you can make wherever you live into your home.
“The house we want to buy instead is also a great house, but it needs a lot of work and will be a renovation project.
“But the main thing is that selling up will free up the money I need to launch Diabetes Power as a charity.
“I am looking to plough around £10,000 into it, but at the moment we have no spare income.”
The Evening Post highlighted the family’s plight after they fought to get funding for a sensor for Claudia’s insulin pump to improve their quality of life.
Claudia was suffering from a lot of attacks of hypoglycaemia – also known as ‘hypos’ – which is when the level of glucose in the blood falls too low.
The family wanted a glucose monitor costing around £6.50 a day which would set off an alarm to warn them when Claudia’s glucose levels dropped too low.
Claudia was having several hypos during the day and night and her parents were unable to sleep properly as they were worried about Claudia and kept having to check her glucose levels had not dropped too low.
However, NHS Central Lancashire, the primary care trust for the area, turned Claudia down for the equipment.
Angela has revealed that Claudia has now been given the sensor system for a three-month period after they appealed against the decision.
After the three months is up, health chiefs will review the situation.
Angela said: “The sensor is wonderful and Claudia has gone from having several hypos a day to just one or two a week.
“Hopefully, by launching this charity, we can help other families by getting more insulin pumps and sensors funded by PCTs.”
Thank you to all the amazing people that have inspired me to set up Diabetes Power.
No comments:
Post a Comment