Lois Strachan’s decision to share her journey through a new YouTube series aims to shed light on the realities of living with type 1 diabetes post-transplant, inspiring broader discussions on treatment and resilience.
Lois Strachan is turning a personal milestone into a new conversation about diabetes. After questions from her community about her recent kidney transplant, she began reflecting more openly on life as a type 1 diabetic and on the years of routines, frustrations and small comic moments that have shaped her experience. Her decision to start a YouTube series comes at a time when transplant stories continue to show how closely diabetes and kidney disease can be linked, with Mayo Clinic reporting on patients whose transplants have transformed daily life in profound ways.
Strachan said the response to her transplant prompted her to speak more publicly about something she has often kept in the background. She plans to use the series, The Diabetic Chronicles, to look back at her childhood diagnosis and the practical realities of living with insulin injections. She said she originally considered The Diabetic Diaries, but settled on a title that better fits a retrospective series rather than a diary format.
Her approach echoes a broader trend among people with type 1 diabetes who are using blogs, video channels and patient stories to explain what management really involves. Personal accounts published by diabetes-focused sites often describe the constant balancing act of insulin, blood sugar monitoring, food choices and exercise, while educational resources such as Type 1 Diabetes Explained aim to make topics like carbohydrate counting and glucose monitoring more accessible. The Insulin Chronicles, another long-running personal blog, similarly frames diabetes as a life lived over decades rather than a condition reduced to a checklist of symptoms.
For readers who share the condition, or care for someone who does, these first-hand narratives can be especially useful because they capture the emotional as well as the clinical side of the disease. Diabetes UK has also highlighted stories from people whose lives changed after major treatment milestones, including transplant, reinforcing how treatment access and long-term support can alter a patient’s trajectory. In that context, Strachan’s new series is less a one-off memoir than an invitation to talk more honestly about what it means to grow up, and keep living, with diabetes.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
