Atreyu’s Freedom with FreeStyle

My son, Atreyu, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the tender age of 6 years old. For 7 years, he has been managing his life long, auto-immune, disease with our help.

For 7 years, Atreyu has been pricking his finger, at least, 8 times a day to test his sugar levels. Sick days, hot days, lazy days, all require an adjustment to how many times he'll need to take 5 mins away from what he's doing, to test his sugar...Not quite what a lot of us remember when we look at our free spirited youth.

For a Type 1 Diabetic, sugar testing is as, if not more, important as taking your regular doses of insulin. So, when the FreeStyle Libre Scanner was offered to us, it was a huge sigh of relief. Finally, a machine that tests Atreyu's sugar throughout the day. No more surprise sugar lows and regularly monitored sugar highs. However, to have this regular monitoring, you need to insert sensors into the skin. These sensors last 2 weeks, costing R990 a set. That's R1980 a month, not covered by medical aid.

Pricking your finger 8 times a day to get a sample of blood, is not how most of us remember our teens. Calloused fingers came from playing the guitar or working hard with your hands, not sticking in a needle through all the "sweet spots", in hoped you'll get enough blood, first time around, to get an accurate reading.

Help Atreyu claim his health and his youth. By donating, you are helping him get constant blood sugar readings, without having to disrupt his day. You are helping him avoid a sugar low, which could send him into a coma, or sugar highs, which could potentially cause irreparable damage on his organs and blood vessels.

Help be the difference between him suffering from a life threatening disease, and slaying it.