A seven year wait for an insulin pump is almost over for diabetic student Hollie Morrison who has been notified that she will receive the device in June, just in time for starting university.
Two weeks ago the Lisbellaw teenager spoke out about her pleas for a pump and described how she always fell short of the top spot in the Western Trust’s insulin pump waiting list. 
“When you have diabetes it is a full-time job trying to stay alive,” the frustrated A Level student had told The Impartial Reporter.
This week, she is pleased to confirm that her doctor has said he will put together a funding package for her and she will receive an insulin pump in just under two months.
“I am elated,” said Hollie. “When my mum called me with the news I was standing in the school corridor in tears. I am absolutely delighted.”
Hollie was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was in Year 8 at the Collegiate Grammar School. Since then she has undergone the complicated process of matching her insulin dose to her carbohydrate intake and exercise by injecting herself with insulin. 
An insulin pump is a small, battery-operated pump which continually gives insulin through a fine tube that is attached to a small needle placed under the skin. It allows patients to adjust their insulin dose minute by minute if necessary. 
The Western Trust has approximately 10 insulin pumps available for ‘new starts’ across the entire Western Trust area. The details of a Health department investment of £1.7million to support diabetes services in Northern Ireland have not yet been finalised with all of the Health and Social Care Trusts. 
At the moment, if Hollie is experiencing low blood glucose before bed-time, her mother sits up all night checking on her. If she feels that Hollie should eat a snack to re-adjust her glucose levels, she wakens her up. The mother and daughter are looking forward to having an insulin pump so Hollie can be more in control of her own body.
“This will be life changing for me,” Hollie stated. “I won’t be so worried as I head off to uni now and neither will my mum.”
As she made her way through her teens and attended diabetes camps organised by Diabetes UK, Hollie realised that, each year, more and more people had insulin pumps. 
On her final camp, “the majority of attendees had pumps and they were showing us how to use them.” Hollie recalled: “I was jealous of them. I’d had it tough injecting myself for so long and it seemed like such a handy tool, I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get one. 
“Now, I will have better peace of mind knowing that it will be safer for me to go to uni. I won’t have as many hypos (hypoglycaemia) and if I go out for a night I won’t have to worry about going to bed and not waking up.”