Christine MacGibbon has lived with type 1 diabetes (T1D) for 27 years. She raises awareness of the realities of living with this disease in meaningful and unique ways, leveraging her modelling, storytelling, and competitive dance background. She is a bold ambassador for Breakthrough T1D, courageously sharing her story through our Mental Health program and Let’s Talk T1D Education Series on T1D and disordered eating.
The $100M Campaign to Accelerate is Breakthrough T1D’s bold fundraising plan to streamline and speed up the most promising T1D research in Canada and worldwide. Led by passionate philanthropists and dedicated volunteers, this major gift campaign has raised over $86M, funding twice the T1D research than six years ago. Together, we are driving an unstoppable movement to change lives today and accelerate cures tomorrow for people living with T1D like Christine.
Trigger warning: This story references a disordered eating behaviour known as diabulimia (insulin omission to lose weight)
Christine was diagnosed at age nine and remembers having lost a lot of weight and needing to urinate more frequently. She says it got to the point where her teachers were giving her detention because they thought she was trying to get out of class; they didn’t know anyone who had diabetes or its signs and symptoms.
Christine was admitted to the hospital after receiving a T1D diagnosis, which didn’t seem so bad at first; she had a dedicated diabetes care team to help manage her T1D and who helped teach her and her family about the disease. She also met children her age diagnosed around the same time, including one of her best friends to this day. Being surrounded by others who understood what she was going through helped her navigate the first couple of weeks of her diagnosis. Yet once she returned home, she didn’t have the comprehensive diabetes care that she needed to thrive.
Christine had a hard time accepting her new reality of living with a chronic illness. “I didn’t really understand what was happening inside my body and why I needed insulin,” Christine says, “I felt that I was my disease, and it was the reason why I wasn’t able to do so many things.”
Approaching her teenage years, Christine encountered stigma from others regarding her weight, insulin needs, and diabetes technology. This led her to believe that her diabetes was her fault, making her feel undeserving of health or happiness, so she tried to distance herself from her disease entirely. She stopped using her insulin pump, avoided checking her blood glucose levels, and restricted her insulin intake. As a result, she lost weight and received praise for it despite her suffering.
“I struggled with diabulimia for many years,” Christine says, “and at the time, there wasn’t a lot of research surrounding it, so I wasn’t able to get the treatments and support that I needed.”
At age 17, Christine’s HbA1c (the average of her blood glucose levels over 2-3 months) was over 14%. This is much higher than the 7.5% or less recommended for teens with T1D. She was also left without an endocrinologist during the challenging transition period between pediatric and adult care. Throughout her late teens and twenties, Christine was frequently in and out of the hospital and ICU due to diabetes complications that arose from her struggle with diabulimia.
It wasn’t until Christine learned about pathophysiology (the study of how a disease affects a patient) at university that she understood what was happening in her body and realized the damage she was doing to herself by withholding insulin. Talking with others living with T1D and learning about their similar challenges also helped Christine feel less alone in her T1D journey.
Thanks to donor-funded advancements in technology, she is now well enough to pursue a degree in Disability Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. Christine aims to combat diabetes stigma and spark conversations about how society views and treats diabetes. She advocates for equitable access to T1D support and coverage, ensuring others don’t have to face the same adversities she experienced. She also champions body positivity and mental health in all her work.
Christine is hopeful for the future of T1D research, seeing the advancements in technology, breakthroughs, and new learning in diabetes, which are making lives better now. “When I think of what’s on the horizon and just how much the tech has advanced and how it’s helped me so far, I could see myself living through everything and being OK,”Christine says.
Join our growing community of T1D philanthropists
Donors to the The $100M Campaign to Accelerate make a profound and immediate impact, helping people like Christine, who bravely face the burdens of this relentless disease every day.
To learn more about how you can meaningfully invest through this exciting campaign, please contact:
Kim Lacombe
Vice President, Philanthropy
klacombe@breakthroughT1D.ca
438-814-1668
