Diabetic kids compete in special Games

A mascot gets the crowds going at the Diabetic Games Credit: Gary Mabee

More than 200 children with diabetes have been competing at a special Games in Cambridge, designed to coincide with the opening of the Paralympics.

All the youngsters have the type 1 variety and organisers have put on the East of England paediatric diabetic Games to show that the condition need not prevent them being involved in sport and having fun.

'It's about managing the condition, ' said Claire Pesterfield, head children's nurse for diabetes at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge - herself a type 1 diabetes sufferer.

The children have been competing in a variety of sports and represented the 17 hospitals in the Anglia region where they've had treatment.

Ten-year-old Sophie Cole from Harlow's been looked after at the Princess Hospital in the town ''I'm really excited about this. Despite all the injections I have to take, I just want to prove I'm normal,' she said