Paul Brothwood

Paul Brothwood, Chartered Environmentalist and operations leader, has lived with Type 1 Diabetes since childhood. Paul Brothwood has lived with Type 1 Diabetes since the age of three. In this article, Paul reflects on how managing diabetes from childhood shaped his approach to leadership, planning, resilience and problem-solving. At the age of three, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and everything seemed to change. Suddenly, life presented me with a complex and demanding project: managing a disease that does not take breaks and can be both unpredictable and, frankly, deadly. While most children were playing and learning, I was learning about blood sugars, injections, and counting each bite of food. I didn’t let it overwhelm me; instead, I took control early on to ensure that diabetes would never get in the way of the life I desired. Managing Ty pe 1 diabetes is a demanding daily task. From a young age, I oversaw my own injections, which were often five per day, and meticulously tr...