This NHS Strike Has Left Me Feeling Scared And Neglected

The NHS is getting frightening. Hairs on the back of the neck, The Exorcist (director's cut) in a dark, empty cinema on your own with no one to hold on for comfort-level frightening.

- JAMES MOORE

Hospital bosses have warned to expect "severe disruption" from this week's 72-hour doctor's strike. Those of us with health conditions will be on the front lines. Thousands of appointments will be cancelled; appointments where test results are scrutinised, checks are performed and early warning signs of trouble are picked up on.

It goes without saying that complications are a lot less complicated when they are dealt with early. Galling as it is to bring economics into this sort of discussion, it is also much cheaper. The net result of the ensuing chaos is that someone, somewhere is going to pay a hideous price. In three, six or 12 months time when they finally get seen, something awful is going to turn up.

That someone with something awful might be me.

There is a long list of complications that can flow from type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disorder in which your body destroys your insulin-producing cells, mostly when you are young. Having had the condition since the age of two, I learned the routine early: look after yourself, turn up to your appointments and do what doctors tell you.