Becky Thomson is cycling the distance from London to Paris to help cure diabetes

TODAY is National Diabetes Day, so it is fitting that Becky Thomson has just completed a marathon cycle challenge.

Becky has pedalled 281miles – the distance from London to Paris – to raise much needed funds for research into type 1 diabetes.

Eight years ago, when she was 24, she was diagnosed with the condition after suddenly becoming very ill.

"I felt very unwell. I was drinking constantly – eight or nine litres of water a day – I'd lost half a stone in weight in a week, and was exhausted and falling asleep at work. I just wasn't myself.

"It was the day before the May Bank Holiday and I was not registered with a doctor so I went to the walk-in clinic who told me I needed to register with a GP."

They tested Becky's blood sugar levels and found them almost five times higher than they should have been.

"I had to go straight to hospital where I spent five days on an insulin drip."

Looking back, Becky had been unwell for a while, and suspected diabetes, but didn't want to face up to it. But her symptoms suddenly worsened and she had no option.

This is not unusual. "Diabetes in an autoimmune disease, there is nothing you can do to prevent it, and they don't know what causes it," says Becky. "You can have symptoms for a long time or they can show suddenly. And when it hits, it hits hard."

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood sugar level to become too high. There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes, where the body's immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin, and type 2, where the body doesn't produce enough insulin, or the body's cells don't react to insulin. Type 2 is far more common and accounts for nine in ten adults with diabetes.

Having been diagnosed with type 1 – a condition which the Prime Minister also has – Becky had to learn how to treat herself through administering regular insulin injections. However, she now uses an insulin pump, a small device attached to the body via a thin piece of tubing, with a needle at the end, which is inserted under the skin and allows insulin to continuously flow into the bloodstream.

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Whichever method used, people with type 1 diabetes have to take great care in the management of their condition. Becky has to check her blood sugar levels throughout the day and adjust the amount of insulin she needs, taking into account what she is eating and what activities she is doing. "It's very complicated, and you can't have a day off," says Becky, who adds she receives excellent care from the team at York Hospital.

But you can manage it, she stresses. Initially, she found a lot of support online and even set up her own blog, Instructions Not Included, (instructionsni.blogspot.co.uk/).

Now aged 32, she helps others coping with the disease. She recently took part in an educational event for young people, and has this advice to anyone newly diagnosed: "Don't ignore it. That is one of the worse things you can do. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help. Nobody expects you to be perfect, but you can make the best out of a not-the-best situation."

Progress is still being made towards a cure, says Becky. And this was her motivation for the charity ride, which she has been doing on a static bike at Pure Gym, York, in the morning before going to work at the Theatre Royal, where she is an administrator. She hopes to smash her £500 target.

"There is some amazing research being done. We don't know when a cure is going to happen, but it is not going to happen if more funding isn't put into it. That is why I am fundraising."

To support Becky, you can donate at: vride.everydayhero.com/uk/beckythomson