‘We accidentally posted a video about diabetes, and it went viral’

When Ellen and Beth posted a TikTok video before they went out for the night, little did they know it would go viral by morning. The students from Northern Ireland happened to leave the blood sugar monitors, which are fixed to their arms and help them manage their type one diabetes, in shot and the world wanted to know more. Now the two women from Belfast create TikTok videos - often just a few seconds long - as the Diabetic Duo to show what life with type one diabetes is really like, but in a lighthearted and sometime frivolous way - like the weirdest places they’ve injected insulin into themselves (think a cheerleading human pyramid) and what to do if your blood sugar levels drop at exactly the same time. The Diabetic Duo reveal what its like to become social media stars overnight and how unusual it is that two best friends would both, coincidentally, be diagnosed as type one diabetics, a predisposed condition not affected by lifestyle, which only affects 8% of all diabetics. If you have diabetes, please consult a health care professional before drinking alcohol. Presented by Kate Monaghan and Simon Minty. Subscribe to Ouch as a podcast on BBC Sounds or ask your smart speaker for BBC Ouch.