New book on type 1 diabetes wins award

A new book, by Dr Rachel Besser, a paediatrician and clinical researcher who has type 1 diabetes, has won an award from the Society of Authors. The book, ‘Diabetes Through the Looking Glass’, which explores what it is like to grow up with the condition, won the 2010 Minty Medico-Legal Society Prize for New Medical or Healthcare Book for the General Reader.
The book, published by Class Publishing in conjunction with the charity Diabetes UK, provides an insight into diabetic childhood based on Dr Besser’s own background as well as a series of interviews with children and adults who tell their stories of having the disease.
It explores the many experiences of a child with type 1 diabetes, including the process of diagnosis and acceptance, blood tests and injections, hypos, school life, being a teenager with diabetes, and after leaving homen, to offer the parent of a child with diabetes an insight into what they are going through.
Dr Besser commented “I am delighted to have achieved such a prestigious award for my book, which comes from the heart and is designed to be a useful tool for parents of children with Type 1 diabetes . My aim, when writing the book, was to give children with diabetes a voice.”
Deepa Khatri, a clinical advisor at Diabetes UK, also said “It is important for the parent to see the experience of having Type 1 diabetes from the child’s perspective, who may not be able to communicate effectively what they are going through themselves. ‘Diabetes Through the looking Glass’ does this brilliantly, and the fact that the book has won an award reaffirms this, and will also help to expose it to the large audience it deserves”.