Irish rowing champion Aoife Willis: 'The possibility of being diabetic never came into my head'

Irish Examiner

30-05-2025

Irish rowing champion Aoife Willis was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 20 after returning home from a summer in the States. Aware that something was not right during her travels but carrying on anyway, her health deteriorated once she came back home, and she was hospitalised.
'The possibility of being diabetic never came into my head before my diagnosis. Some of the symptoms, like excessive thirst, were there, but my diagnosis was unexpected,' says the 31-year-old Limerick native.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic, autoimmune condition. It affects the insulin-making cells of the pancreas by attacking and destroying the cells that produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes, in contrast, is characterised by insulin resistance, so the body's cells don't respond properly to insulin, and the pancreas may not produce enough insulin to compensate.
While there is no national registry for diabetes in Ireland, Diabetes Ireland estimates that 300,000 people are living with diabetes. Around 270,000 live with type 2, and 30,000 live with type 1.
Willis says the first hurdle she had to overcome was learning how to live with the disease while also navigating the stigma and bias associated with it.
Recent research by healthcare company Abbott highlights the difficulties of living with a condition that is often stigmatised. From a survey it conducted of more than 2,600 people with diabetes across eight countries, it was found that 80% of people living with the condition in Ireland believe there is stigma associated with their condition, while 67% said they have seen diabetes inaccurately portrayed in the media.
To help challenge the stigma, Abbot has released a short creative film titled The Emotional Toll of Diabetes, depicting the comments and assumptions made about people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Christina Hamilton, Diabetes Ireland education and support coordinator, gives examples of some of the passive comments made about diabetes, such as 'Are you sure you should eat that cake?' and 'I heard it's preventable', which have an impact on people living with it. 'The language that people use has a major effect on those living with diabetes and their emotional and mental wellbeing,' she says.
Aoife Willis: "I've had moments where I've had to say to people, 'look, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't make jokes about diabetes in front of me,' which is always hard." Picture: Brendan Gleeson.
On the topic of making diabetes the butt of the joke, Willis shares how she handles unwelcome comments: 'I've had moments where I've had to say to people, 'look, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't make jokes about diabetes in front of me,' which is always hard,' she says.
Hamilton encourages others living with diabetes to speak up. 'It is difficult for people living with diabetes to address comments. But I urge anyone with diabetes if they're feeling embarrassed or upset by a comment to say 'actually, that's not true', or 'I don't think that was a well-informed comment that you made, and let me tell you why,' by doing that, together we can change things.'
Willis recalls a particularly challenging experience around the time of her diagnosis. 'I remember going to an appointment early in my diagnosis, and the nurse asked me if I played sports. I explained that I row and run, and her response was: 'Oh, well, it'll be a while until you get back to that again.' And in that moment, I felt so isolated, especially hearing this from a healthcare professional.'
To address the need for change in public perception, Diabetes Ireland has created the country's first 'Language Matters' guide based on the Australian model.
Working with people with lived experience of diabetes, academics and healthcare professionals, the guide aims to improve communication with and about those living with diabetes.
'We want to see a reduction in stigma or burden for people living with diabetes,' Hamilton says. 'There is work ongoing on a document for healthcare professionals in dealing with people living with diabetes. We work with the media a lot too, so they are aware of how to talk about people living with diabetes. For example, instead of referring to people as diabetic, we say they live with the condition, they are not the condition.'
Proving that she lives with the condition and is not defined by it, Willis continues to train with the help of the Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring system, for which she serves as an ambassador.
'Ten months after that conversation I had with my nurse about needing to put my training on hold, I won an Irish rowing championship,' she says with a smile, adding that the achievement felt like a strong rebuttal to the stigma people with diabetes sometimes face.
Willis has connected with other people living with diabetes on social media.
'I've found a lot of community through social media, and there are some great Instagram accounts of people living with diabetes who are role models to me. They'll show themselves living their lives without allowing diabetes to hold them back, and that's empowering to see.
'It reminds me that if they can do it, so can anyone - we're more than just our condition.'
See: www.diabetes.ie
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