Seven decades of survival and support

Barry Goodall, 73 years of age, has a cheeky grin, a sparkle in his blue eyes and has lived with type 1 diabetes for 70 years.

LESS than 100 years ago, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes severely shortened a person’s life.

Half of the people who developed it passed away within two years and less than 90 per cent survived five years.

Mr Goodall, who has beaten all those odds, was presented with the Kellion Victory Medal which honours the lives of people who have lived with diabetes for many decades.

The medal is named after the late Mr Claude Kellion AM, a Sydney businessman who established a foundation to promote diabetes research after his son died aged 38 from diabetes complications.

The medal presentation is an annual event prior to National Diabetes Week which is aimed at raising awareness in the community.

Mr Goodall was diagnosed in 1949, the year his sister Glenda was born.

“I remember, as I got a bit older, because there wasn’t much known about type 1 diabetes, dad used to go to the library and research constantly because he was one of those people who sucked in a lot of information,” Ms Baume said.

Mr Goodall’s father would fill the old hypodermic needles with insulin and give his son his life-saving injections.

“When I was a bit older, I went to the cupboard one night, got the needle out and dad was standing there watching me,” Mr Goodall said.

“You know what to do he asked?” and I assembled it ok and then injected myself.

“I then took the hypodermic apart, put it back in the metho, put the lid on and put it back in the cupboard.”

From then, he injected himself four times a day, every day and has done all his life.

Ms Baume said her mum’s life revolved around Barry.

“In fact, all our lives did, mum didn’t want Barry to think there was anything different about him so we all ate the same thing as Barry, everything was portion controlled,” she said.

“Don’t get me wrong I didn’t miss out on anything.”

Mr Goodall attended Urquhart Street Primary School then onto Ballarat Central Tech, leaving school aged 16.

He worked on a production line at Martin Stoneware Pipe Company on Creswick Road for 20 years.

“I had a hypo at work one day and passed out and was told type 1 diabetes was deemed as an occupational health and safety risk so I had to finish up,” he said.

Ms Baume took on a full-time support role for her brother when her husband passed away in 2013.

“Dad died in 1987 and Barry continued to live with mum until she went into care with Parkinson’s disease and died in 1995,” she said.

Mr Goodall has had all his ongoing diabetic medical needs provided by Ballarat Health Services, apart from treatment for cataracts in Melbourne.

“We could not have survived without the ongoing help and support of the BHS diabetes centre,” Ms Baume said.

“I don’t know what I would be without their Diabetes educators, I can’t speak highly enough about them.”

National Diabetes Week runs from Sunday,14 July to Saturday, 20 July.

Increasing diabetes awareness is essential and early detection and management can reduce risks for serious diabetes related complications.