What is Type 1 on 1?
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Type 1 on 1 is a perfectly imperfect mix of real talk and relentless hope, made for those riding the daily challenges of life with type 1 diabetes.
There are no answers, just endless curiosity and a willingness to ask the questions.
The mission is, and has always been, to help those living with or connected to type 1 diabetes feel less alone.
About The Podcast
Navigating the daily challenges of type 1 diabetes feels like a lot, right?
From the ridiculous to the baffling to the frustrating, the physical and emotional impact of this complex chronic condition is hard to grasp, and even harder to articulate.
So how do you keep moving forward - through the highs and lows, the glucose alarms, and the extra daily decisions? How do you stay positive when it makes you feel so vulnerable?
How do you ride the good and bad diabetes waves when nobody around you ‘gets it’?
Type 1 on 1 gets it. One big, virtual hug of a podcast episode at a time.
Listen on your provider of choice.
About Jen
Professionally, Jen Grieves is a passionate and captivating storyteller with more than 20 years of experience in the media industry as a journalist, editorial and digital producer, moderator and writer.
Work credits include BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, CBBC, BBC Health News, BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour, BBC One, The Apprentice, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!, The Voice UK, Comic Relief, Mercury Music Prize, Love Island, Bacardi Legacy, Sanofi, Kaleido, Insulet Omnipod and more.
Personally, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child in 1996.
(I couldn’t keep up the third person thing. Hi, it’s me).
The ‘you’re just like everyone else’ strategy worked for a while, through the daily finger pricks and fixed injection doses.
The emotional impact of type 1 diabetes wasn’t mentioned back then, much less discussed.
Cut to age 21, and after a few tough years trying to wrestle with a diabetes management regime I’d outgrown, increasingly alone alongside huge life changes, hormone chaos and a nervous system to match, I was diagnosed with background retinopathy.
Terrified of losing my sight, I set out to better understand my condition.
But nothing I found told me what it was really like to live with type 1 diabetes as someone who wanted to say yes to life without sacrificing my health.
Surely it didn’t have to be one or the other?
So, as I started to live it, I started to write it.
That blog, about the adventures of a 20-something figuring out how to ‘do’ diabetes while also figuring out life, love, career and everything in between, connected me to other people living with type 1 diabetes for the first time.
And for the first time I realised I wasn’t alone.
The Type 1 on 1 podcast was created in 2019 out of a desire to pass this connection onto others. Having learned to work with my body rather than against it and embracing diabetes technology with that scrappy, resilient spirit (if I do say so myself), saying yes to life has led me to work for the world’s biggest TV brands, travel the world, hike volcanoes, run a marathon (singular), move countries… all with type 1 diabetes in tow.
So far, I’ve kept my health more or less intact too, although there have been more than a few dodgy hypos along the way.
But that’s the point. Type 1 diabetes management is not perfect. So let’s take that pressure off right now.
To date I have interviewed hundreds of people, sharing real stories, lived experience, empathy, imperfections, triumphs, frustrations and silliness, with an impressive tenacity for figuring it out along the way.
Type 1 diabetes is full of uncertainties, but after bottling up so many stories of extraordinary ordinary lives, I’m pretty damn certain about two things:
There is no normal when it comes to handling this chronic condition.
Even though it doesn’t always feel like it, we are absolutely not alone.
I hope Type 1 on 1 helps you feel that too x
