my story "I can run a pretty tight ship without having to do a whole lot"

After living with type 1 diabetes for two decades, 30-year-old Jeremy Morris feels like the future looks brighter - and healthier - than ever, thanks largely to technology. He shares his journey and what he, and his family, have learned along the way.

- KAREN KITTALL

I was about 14 when I got my first insulin pump. It was 2007 and by then, I'd been living with diabetes for five years. Because I was playing so much sport, when my doctor suggested I should go on the pump my first reaction was, 'I can't that's not going to suit my lifestyle'. And he said 'well, what you're doing at the moment isn't suiting your lifestyle, either'. That quote really resonated with me and has lived inside my head, rent-free, ever since.

"The thing was, while learning to inject myself as a nine-year-old was a big deal, I'm the type of person that, if there's logic behind it, I'm all for it. I needed insulin injections to keep me alive. I understood the concept. But there were other aspects of my diabetes, like finger pricking to check my blood sugar levels, that definitely took a lot longer for me to really understand their significance.

"That first pump was the pinnacle of diabetes technology at the time, and it gave me freedom because I felt like I could finally be more relaxed about what I ate. Should I have eaten the lollies and drunk the Coke? Probably not, but I also knew that technically, with the help of the pump, I could, which as a teenager was great.