Britt Mann.

Zoe Sole was 9 years old when she lost 12 kilograms in three weeks. She had been on a family ski holiday, and realised the weight loss upon returning home. Her doctor ordered blood tests, which showed her blood sugar was soaring. Zoe was rushed to hospital, where she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

The condition, in which the immune system attacks insulinproducing cells in the pancreas, has no cure. It does have a treatment. Synthetic insulin keeps Type 1s alive, but it comes at a cost: the drug makes it easy to put on weight, and almost impossible to lose.

Research has shown women with Type 1 diabetes are twice as likely as the general population to have an eating disorder. A hyperawareness of carbohydrates’ effects on the body, as well as being dependent on medication that makes weight loss extraordinarily difficult, primes young Type 1s for skewed thinking about food.

When Sole was 15, a representative netball coach commented she had lost weight, and was playing well. The comment was well-meaning, but it set Sole on a downward spiral.

‘‘In my mind I correlated that with, the more weight I lost the better netballer I would be,’’ she recalls.

‘‘I joined a gym around the same time and I think the combination just led me to think I was overweight and unattractive in every sense of the word.’’

For three years, Sole would eat breakfast, sometimes lunch, and vomit up her dinner. When she was eventually diagnosed with bulimia, she realised: ‘‘This has got to stop.’’

For Sole, recovery was not a matter of learning to eat ‘‘normally’’.

Type 1 diabetics must constantly consider their carbohydrate intake: every snack, drink, and exercise session prompts a finger-prick to test their level of blood glucose, followed by an injection of insulin, or consumption of carbohydrates, to keep it within a stable range.

‘‘The hardest thing is that you still have to take insulin, it’s a daily thing,’’ she says.

‘‘A lot of psychotherapy’s involved, a lot of talking’s involved - it takes a lot to say, ‘Hey look, I’ve had enough of this’.’’

‘‘I think talking to people who’ve been through it ... is so important ... I couldn’t have done it without support.’’

Now 25, and on the cusp of graduating medical school, Sole is better placed than most to understand the battles many young women have with diabetes, beyond the disease itself. In 2015,

Around a third of Type 1 diabetics admit to abusing insulin in an effort to lose weight, writes