A MUM who has spent 13 years raising a son with type one diabetes has written a book to help parents in a similar situation.

Roxana Reynolds, who also has the condition herself, has written Help My Child Has Type 1 Diabetes.

Her son Eddie, now 15, was diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was two.

The condition – which leaves children dependent on insulin injections or pumps – is becoming more common.

“Nobody really knows why,” said Roxana.

“It’s five times more common than meningitis.”

Unlike type two diabetes, type one is not related to lifestyle or obesity.

Roxana added: “When my son was diagnosed, there was no such thing as Facebook or anything like that.

“It was very isolating. I scoured the internet and got all the books to get knowledge.”

She runs a Facebook group, What Mums and Dads Need to Know to Help Children with Type 1 Diabetes, and decided to help parents further with a handy guide. It has received 18 five-star reviews at Amazon.

“It’s written from my experience with Eddie but with useful information.

“It’s not written in a medical way. It’s a light and easy to read book,” she said.

Roxana, 53, a holistic therapist and hairdresser from Bournemouth, had gestational diabetes when she was pregnant at 21 and was diagnosed with type one diabetes 20 years ago.

She said the early days after a child’s diagnosis could take its toll on a family.

“It will put a stress on your relationship in the beginning because neither of you know what you are doing. You feel you’re in charge of them, they depend on you,” she said.

“The worst thing was when I needed to inject him, he used to run away and hide under the table. He had to do it with teddy first.”

But she says the condition should not limit what people can do. She writes in the book: “Yes, it is hard, yes, it is relentless, but you and your child can live with diabetes.

“You can walk alongside it rather than cower under its shadow.”