Design for diabetes

Twelve-year-old Sophia Shearman couldn’t believe it when she won our competition to design a sensor patch.

Sophia entered the Design for Diabetes competition – a partnership between Medstyle and Diabetes New Zealand – because she loves to draw (along with acro and working out). She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2020 and has been using a FreeStyle Libre sensor, which the patch she created is perfect for covering.

The design competition invited people under 16 to design a sensor patch that showed what ‘Living Brave’ means to them. It was judged by musical duo Vince and Abby Lee Harder, whose daughter has type 1 diabetes.

Sophia’s design is being made into an official RockaDex Patch, produced and sold by MedStyle. All proceeds from sales of this special patch will go to Diabetes NZ to help people live well with diabetes.

THROUGH A YOUNG PERSON’S EYES

Rebecca Long, who runs MedStyle, says ‘We love that the patch represents what Living Brave with diabetes means through a young person’s eyes.

‘Sophia’s use of needles and blood drops, throughout her design, show some of the difficult aspects of living daily with diabetes. However, the cheerful colours and the smiling face in the centre of her design, to me, represent how brave people with diabetes truly are.

‘We loved Sophia's enthusiasm and want to thank her for the time and effort she put into her design. Huge congratulations, Sophia!’

Sophia says, ‘I’ve had so much fun designing a patch, and I’m excited to see my design come to life!’

Sophia's winning patch design

Rebecca's son Hunter wearing the new patch.

A LABOUR OF LOVE

MedStyle is a labour of love for Rebecca. She says, ‘When my son was diagnosed with type 1 at nine, I searched high and low for products that weren't clinical and boring. He was already dealing with enough, and I wanted to add some colour to his life with stylish-yet-practical accessories for his medical equipment.’ This led her to create MedStyle.

She says, ‘Being a small family business and having a child with type 1 diabetes, it’s important to us to give back to our community. When the opportunity arose to partner with Diabetes NZ to run the Design For Diabetes competition, we were excited to be involved.

‘We worked together to create the competition, with the focus on it being fun and creative, as well as helping raise awareness for Diabetes Action Month.’

‘We plan to run the competition annually and look forward to continuing our partnership with Diabetes New Zealand.’

Sophia’s Living Brave sensor patch is available – for FreeStyle Libre & Dexcom G6 – at MedStyle: www.medstyle.co.nz

Rebecca Long and her son Hunter.