People Power series: Community engagement and networks – Mariana Gómez, Mexico

Mariana was born and raised in Mexico. In 1984, at the age of 6 years, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes after falling into a coma for nearly a week. At the time, doctors in Mexico had a limited understanding of type 1 diabetes and Mariana was only diagnosed due to the chance presence of a military health care professional who recognized her symptoms.

At that time, the type 1 diabetes diagnosis came with a poor prognosis, as services and treatments were expensive and hard to access. The expected life span for children with type 1 diabetes was short. There were no tools for diagnosing diabetes and no access to insulin or support. To this day, Mariana, now aged 43 years, is one of a small number of people in her age range in Mexico that continue to survive with the condition.

Mariana describes how her community saved her life by providing access to the medicines and resources that were otherwise unavailable to her given the timing of her type 1 diabetes diagnosis in Mexico.

This article is an excerpt from the publication ‘People power - Perspectives from individuals with lived experience of noncommunicable diseases, mental health conditions and neurological conditions’, which includes six detailed case studies from 12 individuals with lived experience of diverse health conditions.

The case studies were developed using participatory research through focus groups with people with lived experience of NCDs, mental health conditions and neurological conditions.