Type 1 Diabetes - Don’t Let it Mess You Up!

Ian W Peters
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Health & Fitness

I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic at the age of 23 after serving 6 years in the RAF. This series of podcasts will take you through my journey since 1988, the highs and lows of my life and how often poor management of my diabetes may have influenced events.  If you are a type 1 diabetic or know someone who is, I hope my story may be able to help you or them. Would love to have your input or questions as I go through this journey. 

Episodes

  1. 15h ago

    Quit to Build: Launching a Teacher Job Board Against the Odds

    In this episode the host recounts quitting a successful role—possibly influenced by high blood sugars—and impulsively launching a teacher recruitment job board in 2001. Within a year the site reached top Google rankings and generated six-figure revenue while the host juggled supply teaching and refurbishing a house in Italy. He explains rapid growth, buying better technology, expanding operations in Italy with local staff and an internet café, and the lifestyle changes that followed. However, relationship breakdown and internal conflict led to client losses, increased competition, and mounting financial pressure. The episode closes with the business struggling despite earlier success and a hint that the story continues in the next episode.

  2. 3d ago

    Coma, Crisis & the Decision to Leave: My Type 1 Wake-Up Call

    After a life-threatening diabetic coma, the host examines a troubled marriage, impulsive choices like buying a derelict Tuscan cottage, and the emotional aftermath of recovery. As he rebuilds his health and career in education sales, rapid success leads to conflicts at work, a dramatic resignation, and the decision to start his own competing business.

  3. 3d ago

    Coma, Carbon Monoxide & Classroom Chaos: My Type 1 Story

    In this episode I describe renovating a cold house and unknowingly suffering carbon monoxide poisoning, starting a demanding teacher training role while managing Type 1 diabetes, and bonding with students through trips to the Bank of England and Disneyland Paris. Ongoing stress and high blood sugars lead to diabetic ketoacidosis, a coma and a long recovery that ends this chapter of teaching and pushes me back into education-related work.

  4. 3d ago

    University Years: Living, Loving and Type 1 Diabetes

    Episode 7 follows the host through university and early adulthood, exploring how Type 1 diabetes affected mood, relationships and decision-making amid heavy drinking, financial strain and a turbulent personal life. The episode covers life as a halls warden, working in student bars and as a Harvester manager, dental and health consequences, and the transition toward a teaching career.

  5. 6d ago

    When Diabetes Surprises: Highs, Lows and Life on the Road

    Episode 6 explores how daily activities, stress, alcohol, and work routines can cause extreme blood sugar highs and dangerous lows in people with type 1 diabetes. The host recounts real-life incidents—from driving-related hypos and a motorway collision to loss of hypo awareness, neuropathic pain, and the treatments that followed—highlighting how management and care can make a difference.

  6. Sep 28

    The Wake-Up Call: Misdiagnosed, Then Diagnosed — Episode 5

    In episode 5 the narrator recounts a tumultuous period after being misdiagnosed as Type 2, leading to chaotic personal decisions, career changes, and risky living. A GP finally recognizes diabetic ketoacidosis and diagnoses Type 1, starting insulin treatment. The episode also covers career highs in financial sales, the 1990s property boom and crash, and how untreated high blood sugars affected judgement and relationships. It ends with the narrator heading to university while still adapting to life with Type 1 diabetes.

  7. Sep 27

    From Crutches to Commissions: RAF Life, Love and the Falklands

    A candid episode tracing a young RAF steward's journey through basic and catering training, unexpected romances, married life, and a life-changing four-month posting to the Falkland Islands where he found unexpected success. Returning home he leaves the service for a new career, is misdiagnosed as type 2 diabetic, and struggles with the early consequences of unmanaged type 1 diabetes — setting up the challenges to be explored in future episodes.

  8. Sep 24

    From Boarding School Rations to RAF Boots: My Unexpected Journey

    In episode three I reflect on my difficult early relationship with food at boarding school, the heavy smoking and drinking in college, and the cramped social life that left me underweight and unsettled. I describe working at the Grand Hotel, where long hours, late nights and drinking mixed with college life. I also recount a distressing encounter with the deputy general manager that led me to resign, and how that pushed me to join the RAF. The episode closes with my tough basic training, an injury, and a hint of what comes next.

  9. Sep 23

    My childhood and the pre diabetic years

    My childhood in the pre diabetic years

  10. Sep 20

    The beginning of the type 1 diabetes rollercoaster

    Hi, I'm Ian Peters. I'm 61 years of age. Living in the southeast of the UK and I've been a type 1 diabetic since 1988 when I was 23. The purpose of my podcast, 1 is to share my experience with quite a long period of time with diabetes and hopefully to get other people, other type 1 diabetics involved.

  • 10 Episodes

About

I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic at the age of 23 after serving 6 years in the RAF. This series of podcasts will take you through my journey since 1988, the highs and lows of my life and how often poor management of my diabetes may have influenced events.  If you are a type 1 diabetic or know someone who is, I hope my story may be able to help you or them. Would love to have your input or questions as I go through this journey. 

Information