VITAL STATS
Name? Kate Gilbert
How old are you? 29
Where do you live? Melbourne

Anything to declare? It's been a while since I looked as tanned and relaxed as this photo - taken after a holiday in Byron Bay!

MORE ABOUT YOU
A few words about yourself?
I studied Music, Politics and Italian and am now in the middle of a Masters in Public Health - I have been lucky enough to travel a fair bit and am always dreaming about my next trip.

Where were you born and raised? Melbourne.

Favourite piece of music? This week, Kate Miller-Heidke. Last week, Bernard Fanning's Tea & Sympathy. Random times in between, I'm dancing in the kitchen to The Waifs, Lighthouse.

What makes you laugh? Shopping for wedding dresses.

Your greatest achievement? Gaining a real sense of independence and then keeping my head above water.

Goals for the next year? Ooh I'm just updating this and discovered that I've actually done the three things I had listed here for the past 5 years - hooray!

If you could have three wishes, what would they be?
1. A cure yesterday (or complication-less diabetes would be OK too.)
2. Perpetually happy & healthy family and friends (especially the baby ones).
3. Three more wishes.

ME AND THE BIG D
How long ago were you diagnosed with Diabetes? I was 5.

What does a hypo feel like? There's the physical stuff we all know about: shaky, loss of concentration, but the most overwhelming feeling for me is frustration and a desperate urgency that it just f*** off and let me get on with whatever I'm doing! That adrenaline is serious stuff.

Best/worst/most embarrassing hypo? Telling my Grade 4 teacher to f*** off. (I was this pig-tailed, knee-high-to-a-grasshopper little kid and the teacher almost fainted with shock.) Waking up with a million people and two paramedics in my room at college - twice in a fortnight. The 2nd time was dumb.

Does everyone around you know about your D? My run of jobs in diabetes organisations makes avoiding it difficult - though I've been known to try.

What do you say/do to the food police? Smile sweetly, and one word answers through gritted teeth are good. Can you eat that? "Yes." Are you sure. "Yes." It's all in the eyes.

Are you a Person with Diabetes or a Diabetic? I don't care. There are so many more important things to worry about in this world! If "diabetic" feels like an impersonal insulting label, it is probably more to do with the attitude with which it is said and the words that surround it. The latter is a real problem which does deserve our time.

Public injections - what's the etiquette? I always expect a spotlight to appear from over my shoulder and everyone to start on their 20 questions about what I'm doing but in 99.9% of cases people never even noticed me doing it. I get many more comments with the pump - most recently .. "Is that a pager?! They're soooo last century!"

Any wisdom to share? It's amazing what you can do if you use your head and your heart together.