Alice Lebner, 11, hasn't let a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes stop her from playing the sport she loves.
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Even when the odds were stacked against her, Alice Lebner figured out a way to pull through.
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This weekend, the Cobram FNC is teaming up with Congupna FNC for Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Round, with all netball and football grades donning Type 1 socks in support of Alice, a junior Cobram netballer whose life was changed after a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes.
The signs of her daughter’s symptoms were telling for Kate, with doctors eventually confirming what she had felt in her gut all along.
“I just felt physically sick,” Kate said.
“I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
As for Alice, an independent young teenager who loved playing netball more than anything, the diagnosis left her gutted.
“She lost her spark,” Kate said.
“She was not herself. It really affected her physically and emotionally.”
Now, at 11 years old, Alice can’t go anywhere without a backpack of monitoring equipment, including a glucose meter.
Alice (centre) with her parents Tim and Kate, sister Hayley and brother Max.
Her life will never return to the kind of normalcy it had before her diagnosis.
“It will never be like it was, but that’s okay,” Kate said.
“We just learned to modify things and do the best we can.”
Initially, Alice had to overcome an anxiety of needles to have four injections a day.
But now, an insulin pump has drastically reduced the number of needles she needs each week and enabled Alice to continue playing the game she loves.
Recently, when the Cobram FNC approached Kate about hosting an awareness round, Kate said she broke down in tears.
“I was so grateful,” she said.
“Alice feels really supported, and we need that.”
The Type 1 Foundation provides critical services to those impacted by Type 1 diabetes, including care packages and counselling services for families.
Together with raffles and merchandise sales, the round aims to raise awareness of the lived experience of those with Type 1 diabetes, and to support the Type 1 Foundation.
As for Alice, mum Kate couldn’t be prouder of her daughter.
Seven months later, Alice has overcome the odds and refused to let her diagnosis define what she can and can’t do.
“She has absolutely smashed it this year. She’s had an unreal year. She gets out there and gives it her everything,” Kate said.
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