Amanda Smith, the first Canadian to receive an islet cell transplant to give her blood sugar control akin to a non-diabetic, says taking anti-rejection pills for life is a breeze compared with what she used to have to do to deal with her Type 1 diabetes.

When Amanda Smith learned at the age of 25 that she had late-onset Type 1 diabetes, she considered the diagnosis a death sentence.

The nurse, from London, Ont., had a particularly dim view of the disease because she grew up watching her mother struggle with it. Her mother would slur her words and lose consciousness when her blood sugar bottomed out. Once, Ms. Smith’s grandfather had to break a window to reach her mother, who was passed out in her home holding a banana she had tried to consume to raise her blood sugar.


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