"Nobody stayed to help me keep learning."
I was diagnosed with type 1 at 16, in the UK, in 2008. I was rushed through hospital, sent home with insulin I didn't really understand, and moved through appointments that felt like a checklist. Then I was mostly left alone with it.
The real learning happened over years, through mistakes, burnout, avoiding it, one frightening episode, and slowly working it out. Eighteen years on, it still hasn't ended. This is the thing I wish had existed: not a diagnosis pack, but somewhere that stays.
A guide that meets you where you are
No Perfect Numbers is for people in the UK who were diagnosed with type 1 as teenagers, whatever age you are now. A newly diagnosed 16 year old and someone in their thirties coming back to it after years away are both exactly who this is for. Newly diagnosed is only one way in. It is also for the person who has had type 1 for years and never got their head around insulin on board, the one who is burnt out and avoiding it, and the one heading into adult care not feeling ready.
We organise everything around the situation you're in now, not how long ago you were diagnosed. Because type 1 doesn't come with a finish line.
This isn't an attack on doctors
Diabetes teams work under real pressure, and plenty of people get excellent care. The harder problem is timing: you get handed all of this at the exact moment your life is changing shape, when you are frightened and not remotely ready to absorb it. Nodding along and going home is the normal response, not a failure.
Your team holds clinical responsibility and can change your treatment. We are not doctors and we don't replace them. We go back over the parts that never landed, for whenever you are ready to take them in.
Lived experience, grounded in UK guidance
Every page is based on current UK guidance (NICE, NHS) and links its sources, so you can check anything we say against the original.
Education and support, never individual insulin doses, diagnosis, emergency substitutions or automated treatment decisions. Examples use fictional numbers to show principles, not a formula to copy.
Who wrote it, when it was published and updated, its sources, and a way to flag a correction.
Safety-critical pages are re-checked whenever guidance, medicines, devices or the rules change.
How we talk about it
Independence & funding
Right now this is a personal project, free to use, with no ads and nothing to buy. It isn't tied to any company. It may one day become a proper UK not-for-profit, but only if that helps it reach more people.
One firm line: no sponsor or funder can ever choose, change or suppress what we say clinically. No behavioural advertising. No commercial messages inside emergency, burnout or treatment content. Any future funding and relationships will be declared openly.