Meet Alisha
The best present Alisha ever got from Santa is a small, strong yeti called Icka.
Every night before bed, Icka does her exercises – sit-ups and punches, to keep her strong. And every few days, when Alisha has to inject a new set to connect her insulin pump to her body, she holds Icka tight.
Alisha is eleven. She’s in 6th class. She loves roast potatoes, Home Alone, and running downstairs on Christmas morning, hoping everyone will hurry up and wake so she can see what Santa brought.
Alisha has type 1 diabetes. And she carries a responsibility that would wear down most grown-ups.
Type 1 diabetes is not something a child grows out of. It is a serious, long-term autoimmune condition with no cure. Around 3,000 children in Ireland live with it, with more than 300 newly diagnosed every year. Every day, children like Alisha walk a fine tightrope, carefully balancing their blood sugar levels and taking insulin just to stay alive. If their blood sugar drops too low or climbs too high, it can quickly become dangerous, even life-threatening.
"Helium helps me a lot, because it gives me something to look forward to, and I can go to a place where I don't have to explain myself."
Alisha, age 11
Since her diagnosis, nothing is simple.
There has been so much for Alisha and her family to learn, so quickly. Before she can eat, she has to count the carbohydrates in her food and work out how much insulin she needs. She needed a phone to help her manage her diabetes, and everyday life now involves constant calculations, decisions and worries that no eleven-year-old should have to carry.
At school and when she’s out playing with other children, Alisha has to keep an eye on her blood sugar levels all day, with alarms alerting her when they go too high or too low. If her levels drop, she has to stop whatever she’s doing, sit down, take glucose and wait, while everyone else keeps playing.
“That’s when I can sometimes feel different from others.”
But ask Alisha what she loves, and her whole face changes. Alisha loves art. Her bedroom walls are covered in drawings and her whole bookshelf is filled with her creations, she draws an animal every single day.
For the last 18 months, Helium has helped Alisha grow her dream of becoming an illustrator. Our professional artists run creative workshops for children living with long-term health conditions, in hospitals, in the community and online.
"I have to prick myself with needles, to put in a new pump set every three days and new CGM sensor every ten days,' Alisha told us. 'I have to carry around a bag full of different bits and bobs that most children wouldn't have to do.'
'I sometimes worry that I might lose my pump or my phone."
When we asked Alisha what makes Christmas feel magical, she said it's the one night of the year when "everyone's all excited and in a good mood - and that's really special."
That is exactly what a Helium workshop gives a child like Alisha. A few hours when being creative is magical and special.
At Helium Alisha gets to try creative things she's never tried before.
But the most magical thing Helium gives Alisha isn’t the paint or paper. It’s a place where, for a few hours, she doesn’t have to be ‘the girl with diabetes’.
At Helium, Alisha gets some time where diabetes doesn’t have to be the thing she thinks about most. She gets to try creative things she’s never tried before, get carried away in making art and spend time with other children who understand what it’s like to live with a health condition. With a medic there to support her, she can feel safe, forget about the things she has to manage every day and just be herself.
‘Helium helps me a lot,’ she says, ‘because it gives me something to look forward to, and I can go to a place where I don’t have to explain myself.’
This is what we call the Magic of Making. The moment a child stops counting, checking and waiting – and simply creates.