Episode 92 - Helen Wills: Letting go as my diabetic daughter starts university

It’s Season 10 of Type 1 on 1, can you believe it? There’s no better person to start the series with than parent blogging and podcasting royalty Helen Wills, better known online as Actually Mummy.

For more than a decade, Helen has helped other Mums and Dads navigate the far-reaching multitudes of parenting through the Actually Mummy blog and more recently her podcast, Teenage Kicks.

As well as all the normal challenges of parenthood and the magic of family life, they’ve faced it all with type 1 diabetes too, Helen’s daughter Maddie was diagnosed at nine years old and the condition forced its way into the entire family’s life.

It’s been a pivotal few months for Helen as Maddie has now left home to start her first year of university; a monumental milestone for Helen after a devastating personal experience when she herself was a student.

We chat about how it feels to have your firstborn leave home, turning off Maddie’s glucose alarms, teenage hormones, alcohol and diabetes, the grief of the diagnosis for a parent and what this new chapter means for Helen, who is currently training to be a counsellor.

CONNECT WITH HELEN
Check out the Actually Mummy Blog.
Say hi to Helen on Instagram.
Listen to the Teenage Kicks podcast.