25-yr-old hopes her type 1 diabetes journey will break stigma for young Fijians

25-year-old, Shreta Shinal who has been living with type 1 diabetes, hopes her story will break stigma and encourage young people across Fiji to seek help early.

Shinal, who works at CWM Hospital as a medical lab scientist says her battle began four years ago when she started experiencing severe symptoms that she initially ignored.

While speaking to fijivillage News during the launch of Diabetes Fiji’s World Diabetes Month event, Shinal says her symptoms included frequently visiting the washroom and severe weight loss.

She says she had gone for a general check-up at the hospital where she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes but at that time, she was in denial and did not accept the condition.

Her refusal to accept the diagnosis led to a life-threatening complication.

She says her journey has been very difficult but at the same time, she has grown and learned to live with it.

However, she admits the early years were mentally heavy, and she was depressed at one point, but her mother played a major role in helping her through it.

Shinal says one of the biggest challenges has been the public’s limited understanding of type 1 diabetes, which is often confused with type 2.

Type 1 diabetes, caused by genetics, means the body cannot make insulin at all while type 2 diabetes, a lifestyle disease, means the body makes insulin but cannot use it properly.

She says because of the stigma attached to diabetes, she feared they would judge her but, later on, she discovered that there is nothing wrong with having diabetes because she can live a normal life.

Shinal says she has been fortunate to receive strong support from family, friends and her medical colleagues.

She is now urging others living with diabetes not to stay silent out of fear of judgement.

Diabetes Fiji Chairman Taabish Akbar has revealed that membership for their Young Diabetes Fiji programme increased from 50 to 80 active young champions aged 30 years or below this year.

He is calling on everyone to do whatever they can to help reduce diabetes cases, warning that Fiji faces a serious risk of becoming the country with the highest per capita diabetes rate in the world.