Dancer qualified for finals despite the difficulties of living with the condition
A CARDIFF teenager who lives with type 1 diabetes has been chosen to represent Wales in the Dance World Cup.
Ballerina Olivia Bant, 13, from Fairwater, will travel to San Sebastian in Spain at the end of June to dance in the finals of the international competition.
“Having diabetes can be quite difficult, but we manage it okay,” said Olivia, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 10, just two days after auditioning for the Royal School of Ballet.
She said: “It’s definitely changed my life and changed our normal days because we’re always having to think all the time about what to do and how we can help the situation.”
Her mother, Helen Brown, said: “It’s much harder to dance with diabetes, there’s certain rules that she has to follow. For example, if she has high blood sugar she’s not meant to exercise, and her energy and concentration levels can go down.
“She has been admitted into hospital three times and never seems to get a smooth ride with it.”
Olivia started ballet when she was two and now uses a sensor to monitor her blood sugar levels which involves constantly having a needle in her arm.
Despite her medical team insisting on it, Olivia was initially reluctant to have the sensor because she was very scared of needles.
Ms Brown said: “When she first got the sensor she hid it, wore bandages and plasters over it and she wouldn’t even tell her friends she had diabetes.
“While all this was going on, she lost confidence in her dance abilities and nearly gave it all up.”
Despite these challenges, Olivia soon bounced back and now wears her sensor proudly when she dances.
Last year she joined a new ballet class where she made friends and began practising for competitions.
“In lockdown it was very hard because we did loads over Zoom and because of the spacing it was difficult and stressful,” she said.
Olivia is now looking forward to flying out to the finals of the Dance World Cup where she will perform three solos, four group dances and a quartet with her teammates. They will be competing against teams from around the world.
She said: “I’m really excited but I am a bit nervous because I’ve never done such a big competition before.”
Olivia and her mum are now searching for sponsors and have set up a GoFundMe page so they can raise money to cover the costs of competing.
“It’s fantastic to see Olivia being so successful and it demonstrates that children living with type 1 diabetes can achieve whatever they want to and should be encouraged to do the activities they enjoy,” said Leanne Jenkins, Wales’ National Care Advisor for Diabetes UK.
“It is really important that we continue to raise awareness of the condition and that everyone recognises the symptoms of type 1 diabetes in both children and adults so that they can be diagnosed safely and quickly.”
More information about type 1 diabetes can be found here.
