‘This system is so easy to use. I stay in range’
RETIRED maths teacher Sue Briggs was prescribed FreeStyle Libre within a month of it becoming available on the NHS in November last year.
Like many Type 1 diabetes sufferers, her condition is managed by a hospital consultant and it was he who wrote to her GP recommending it.
For two years previously Sue, 63, from Taunton, Somerset, had dipped into her savings to pay the £100 a month costs of the monitoring system.
She said: “I received mine just before Christmas and it was like an early present.
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“Instead of having to stop and prick myself throughout the day to find out whether my blood glucose is going dangerously low or high, I now have so much more information and.
“As a consequence, I can stay in range most of the time.”
Sue was diagnosed with diabetes aged 53 in 2008.
Initially, doctors thought she had suffered a heart attack, but when they eventually checked her blood sugars, they realised she had Type 1.
She now inserts a small needle attached to a patch the size of a £2 coin into her arm once every fortnight.
It stays there for the duration, and she swipes a hand-held reader over it to quickly and accurately measure the glucose levels.
The display also gives information of what has been happening to her over the previous eight hours.
Sue said: “When I was diagnosed I knew absolutely nothing.
“I thought there was one type of diabetes that sent your sugars high and one that sent your sugars low.
“This system is easy to use and because of that I can do it more often and because of the information I receive, I can react more effectively.
“One of the symptoms of my condition is hypoglycemia and I get very hot.
“With this equipment, I can very quickly read my glucose levels and know – if they are dangerously low or high – what to do.
“Before I was prescribed it I was funding it privately and it was worth every penny.
“I appreciate each CCG [Clinical Commissioning Group] has limited funds, but I don’t think they are looking at the long-term benefits of this.
“As diabetics, we always look at how we will be in the future and because of that I am hopefully preventing any long-term health problems which may cost the NHS significant amounts of money.
“I just wish that everybody could benefit in the way I have.”