Balance Interview

My Mum left a £5,000 legacy to the Diabetic Association (since she had two diabetic daughters) - and today a lovely journalist from their Balance magazine rang to interview me as they are going to do a 'piece' about her.

I burbled on for a while and will let you know if/when they publish an article.  Below is what I sent to them about Mum initially:

Freda Holden was born in Oldham, Lancashire on the 20 May 1937. An origin of which she was very proud. She was the second child of Alderman George Frederick Holden and his energetic wife, Nancy. Later a very successful and popular Mayor and Mayoress of Oldham. She had an older sister Shirley and younger brother Robin.
 
Freda was diagnosed with diabetes aged 13 and had to inject insulin using glass syringes and use sterilisation equipment.  In her 20’s she was embarrassed by her diabetes, and would rather order neat gin when she went out on dates (there were no sugarless mixers in those days) than discuss it.
 
Her father thought she would never marry and certainly never have children because of her condition and was absolutely delighted that he lived long enough to see her marry Jimmy Humble and give birth to her first daughter of three, Josephine 1964, and then Rebecca 1965 and Sarah 1967.  However, for every pregnancy she had, her dangerous ‘condition’ meant that she was in hospital for 3 months prior to the delivery.
 
Two of her three daughters Josephine and Sarah were also diagnosed with diabetes in their teenage years and in 1997 the family took part in a research study by Professor Robert Tattersall that identified the MODY 3 gene. 
 
Freda was an insulin dependent diabetic from the age of 13 years and diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2005. She retained much of her vitality and managed her diabetes very successfully until the later years, when all memory of being 65 years a diabetic was gone and meant she couldn’t recognise or communicate symptoms of hypos, or remember what she had eaten, making the condition extremely difficult to manage.  Freda died in November 2017 with her family around her.  With a strong family interest in diabetes Freda chose to leave a legacy of £5,000 to the diabetic association.


Thinking about my mum still makes me cry but she never let it stop her doing things she wanted to do, and it never stopped me either.  That is what I will always remember and hold close.