Kobi’s Story

As a kid growing up at a young age your last thought is getting a disease that you don’t know anything about and facing a new challenge that you will live with the rest of your life.From as long as I can remember I’ve played the beautiful game of soccer and growing up in a soccer family I was always out on the field training and playing with the ball.Little did I know at 10 years old I had a huge life changing challenge I would have to face.At the age of 10 i came home from a family vacation from my home country Jamaica,Feeling not myself.The symptoms i had a felt on the plane home brought a concern to my attention.I was peeing every 5 min,I felt tired,drowsy,and just had an unusual feeling I’ve never felt before.As I got home the first thing I did was go to the doctor with my mom to check out what was the cause of the symptoms.The doctors had told us you need to go to the ER due to extreme high blood sugar.My blood sugar was 900,800 above what it should be.This was something that was unusual due to no one in my family having it.After 3 days in the hospital they brought my blood sugar down to normal and diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes.There was so much going through my head but my first thought was,Would I be able to play soccer again? I was beyond blessed to have a supportive doctor that gave me the belief I could be the same soccer player I was and be even stronger.Since then not only have I managed it for 7 years but I’ve also managed to travel the world,play soccer at the highest level,share my story to many kids,and grow myself mentally more than I ever could due to all the adversity that comes with it.This adversity has helped me have discipline,resilience, confidence,and most importantly be a better person.It is not a negative at all,in fact I hope my story can influence everybody to turn this adversity into a positive.It is a part of who i am,and a part of who you are,Don’t let it stop you! I hope my brand and story can inspire kids that T1D can’t stop you. If I can manage it so can you!

Kobi Thomas