Kaela Nolan

So I've been involved with Barrett's Tech for 10 years now.

It's been a long time coming and I just I loved every second of it.

Honestly, like I say to anyone who listens to me, that's my favourite place in the world.

And that's why I was so glad that I was able to get involved again with the Young Adult Programme.

So you were about nine or 10?

then when you first came into contact?

I'd been diagnosed when I was eight years old back in 2015 so it's been a long time since I've been in Barrettstown and I feel like it's really helped me come back on into myself because I feel like since my diagnosis I really was a shell of myself I really was and I didn't really know where to go with it I didn't know anyone who was like me because I was living in a small village in Dunderry in County Meath so it's like literally out in the middle of nowhere and I didn't know anyone who was like me.

So I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2015.

I had no symptoms at all when I was diagnosed.

So I just ended up in intensive care and everything.

And I was told I wasn't going to make it.

I was very lucky now.

I did actually survive it all.

But going back to normal life then after that, like it was crazy.

It was so surreal.

And no one really understood what I'd been through and the effects that I continued to have on me.

And I had other kind of diagnosis come along at the same time because diabetes goes hand in hand with a lot of conditions.

But my whole life was just changed.

I was trying to get back into normal.

Yeah, that's what I feel like a lot of kids, like illnesses when they're younger, will say like their friends don't really understand what they're going through.