A father hopes his “slightly mad” idea to run the length of the M1 will help raise awareness of a well-known but little understood condition after his son was diagnosed with it.
Jamie Austin, who lives in East Finchley, told the PA news agency that his 12-year-old son Henry’s type 1 diabetes diagnosis in June 2020 was the spark for the M1 challenge.
Type 1 diabetes happens when the body cannot produce enough of a hormone called insulin, which controls blood glucose, causing the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood to become too high.
Not linked to weight or age, patients must take insulin every day to keep their blood glucose levels under control.
A person with type 1 diabetes will have around 65,000 injections and measure their blood glucose more than 80,000 times in their lifetime.
Jamie said: “(Type 1 diabetes) doesn’t always get loads of coverage because lots of people who live with it just kind of get on with it quietly,” the 49-year-old, who works in communications, said.
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“We had to learn a lot in a couple of years after Henry was diagnosed and I wanted to do something for Henry first and foremost because he has been so brilliant throughout all of this.
“I think he got upset about it once on the first or second day as he was told he would have to have injections every day for the rest of his life, but he has just got on with it and been amazing.”
Approximately 400,000 people are currently living with type 1 diabetes in the UK, including around 29,000 children.
Mr Austin is to raise money for the charity JDRF - the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation - which funds research to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes.
He has already raised £5,000 before the run has even taken place.
Despite the M1 being more associated with driving than running, the pair have a connection to the M1.
“Henry got on to a clinical trial at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in 2020 and so we were driving up and down the M1 to see the team there every few months,” he said.
“So when I was thinking of something meaningful to do and something that felt challenging and raised awareness for type 1 diabetes, running the length of the M1 felt like a good, but also slightly mad, idea.”
The JDRF says that the UK has one of the highest rates of type 1 diabetes in the world, for reasons that are currently unknown.
In children under five, the incidence of type 1 diabetes is rising by five per cent each year.
Among children with diabetes in England and Wales, 96 per cent have type 1 diabetes.
However, he also added that when he first mentioned the idea to his family in October 2022, it raised eyebrows, with two questions being uttered.
“The first reaction was what? Really?” he said.
“I think it took them a while to understand it because the idea of it is quite simple, but then everyone thinks, how on earth are you actually going to do this though?
“And then the other big question is how far is that?”
He added that he will be running roughly 220 miles, averaging around 22 miles a day.
Jamie will run from north to south, starting on January 23 at Garforth (the last M1 junction) and aiming to finish close to home at junction 1 by Brent Cross on February 4.
Despite initial bemusement from his family, Mr Austin said that his mother – Glenys, 78 – and father – Barry, 80 – are to act as his “support team”, dropping him off at and collecting him from his daily start points and end points.
These were meticulously decided on through an online tool called Map My Run.
“I spent a few hours solid when I decided I wanted to do this just looking at the routes and what would be possible,” he said.
“I could zoom in and see the specific roads or paths that I’m running down, so it really helped me figure out what the terrain was like and which way to go, and it allowed me to plan out a day-by-day breakdown to follow the M1 fairly faithfully.
“However, on some days, I may be running a few miles away from it, sometimes I am right next to or underneath it.”
Jamie added that he would “like to think that Henry is proud that I’m trying this”.
“And he knows what it means to me and why I want to do this for him and all my family and friends have been so brilliant and supportive and my wife – Rachel, 44 – has been incredible about the fact that this has sort of taken over my whole life.”
Mr Austin’s training schedule has seen him take part in 30km runs on both Christmas and New Year’s Day and taught him valuable lessons about the appropriate things to do, in terms of how much water to drink and how to fuel your body.
He said he is looking forward to finally starting the challenge.
“I’ll be running through Barnsley, Rotherham, Nottingham, Leicester, Milton Keynes and Watford, as well as a whole load of rural areas in places like Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire,” he said.
“This is not like a traditional road trip in many senses of the word, but I just like the fact that I am going to get to see different parts of the country in a different way.
“And I am just going to be thinking of Henry while I am doing it and thinking of the moment I come around the corner of my road and see my house again as I will be away from my wife, son and daughter (Rosie, 10) for two weeks while I do this challenge.”
More information about the run can be found on the fundraising page at https://www.justgiving.com/page/m1-for-t1
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