‘It really is a matter of life and death’
How he was diagnosed with diabetes and how he’s going to great lengths to help out
It wasn’t until he returned home for his identical twin’s wedding that former Whanganui local Will Pickering felt something wasn’t quite right. The week he found out he had diabetes was a “weird” one.
“I was just peeing all the time, and losing weight,” he said.
“After the wedding I went to Australia for a few days and I was drinking litres and litres of water, and stopping at every petrol station I went past. I never drink Coke, but I was skolling two litres of it at a time.
“I should of known there was something wrong, but I was stubborn and just thought: ‘I’ll be fine’.”
It wasn’t until Pickering returned to London that he decided to go to the hospital, on the very same day that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) was the victim of a cyber attack by Russian hackers.
“I couldn’t really afford a taxi so I just jumped on my bike. After almost fainting I decided to walk instead, and when I arrived there were 300 people in the waiting room. It turns out that hospital was the only one that didn’t get hacked.
“I knew I was bad but I didn’t want to push in front of all the old people. I ended up collapsing, and I woke up with four bags of fluids in my arm.”
Pickering was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which in turn led to his twin brother in New Zealand also being diagnosed with it.
“The doctors said that it was likely both twins would have it, and, sure enough, when he went in for a test the early signs were there. Now he’s got it like me, and we’re literally blood brothers.”
Rather than “letting the condition define” him, Pickering continued to undertake challenging pursuits.
After spending nine days cycling around the north of Japan, he embarked on a 700-kilometre solo bike expedition around Norway.
It was there that the idea of raising money for diabetes came about.
“The first two days were beautiful, but after that it was miserable. Some
of the hills were taking — and I’m not exaggerating — seven hours to get up.
“I ended up sheltering in this little bus stop, trying to keep warm. I just thought, ‘F*** this, I don’t want to do it any more’. The only way I was going to keep going was if I was doing it for a reason, so I started a [diabetes] charity page and emailed a few
workmates. After a couple of days it had raised around £300 [$570], and that inspired me to keep going.
“This time I’ll be running for Diabetes New Zealand, and all the money will be going straight to them.
“This time” won’t be just a casual run, it’ll be the 60km Kepler Challenge, held in Te Anau, Fiordland.
“I ran around Lake Waikaremoana two weekends ago in training, and that was pretty brutal,” Pickering said.
“It’s usually a three- to four-day hike but I managed to get around in one day.
“You have to book a water taxi to get back from the end of the trail but I couldn’t get hold of them before I left. In the end I had to sprint for the last 40 minutes, after already doing a marathon, and just made it on the last boat. I would have been sleeping out in the bush otherwise.”
After such punishing training, Pickering is confident he can tackle the Kepler Challenge.
“When you’re first diagnosed [with diabetes] it takes quite a while to understand what you can and can’t do under this new health regime. You find yourself asking yourself: ‘ Will I ever be able to have a normal life again?’.
“This is a way of pushing through it and proving that it’s possible, not just for myself, but for anyone else who has been diagnosed as well.”
With a condition to monitor and 60km to traverse, Pickering said he would have to stay vigilant for the entirety of the race, as well as during training.
“I’ll try and have my blood sugars a little bit higher before the run starts, and I’ll have gels and glucose tablets with me.
“It really is a matter of life or death if I forget to take food with me and I’m a long distance from something. I would die, it’s that serious.
“In the race I’ll be using this new technology called a Freestyle Libre. It’s about the size of a 50 cent piece and you inject it into your shoulder. It’s got a hair-thin needle that goes into your bloodstream and links to your phone, and I’ll be using that instead of having to prick my finger and check the blood.”
Pickering said he was aiming to finish the Kepler Challenge in under eight hours.
“Some of the crazy guys do it in under five hours. If I can get it done in the sevens somewhere I’ll be happy.
“Who knows? I might surprise myself.”