Grandma, 90, is NZ's oldest living person with diabetes and now her sights are on a world record

November 30, 2018

Winsome Johnston has just turned 90 and she could make her way into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was only six, Winsome Johnston has spent decades living with the condition. And now she wants to capatalise on her longevity to be put forward for the Guinness World Records.

With her application being validated, 90-year-old Winsome is currently three years older than the oldest person living with diabetes. She hopes her 84 years living with the condition will make her a record-holder.

She recalls the day she got her diagnoses and remembers it vividly.

"I was in a room of people and the doctor said to my mother that your daughter has got type one diabetes and he waved the test tube in front of all these people," she says.

She says her parents took the news in their stride, her mother getting creative and making a version of ice cream from old-fashioned ideal milk.

After all she had experienced, Winsome became a nurse, then got married and had four children.

With a disciplined lifestyle and diet she says she thinks she has done pretty well.

After more than 80,000 insulin shots and hundreds of thousands of finger pricks, the technology today is a welcome change.

Winsome recalls her father having to boil a needle in a pan to sterilise it - he even sharpened it using a razor blade.

Her doctor, family and friends call her inspirational.

And Winsome says a positive attitude has been the key to it all.  

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