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

This is a full transcript of 'We accidentally posted a video about diabetes, and it went viral' as first broadcast on 5 March 2020 and presented by Kate Monaghan and Simon Minty.

BETH - Hi everyone. I'm Beth.

ELLEN - And I'm Ellen.

BETH/ELLEN - And we are the Diabetic Duo.

[music]

BETH - You might know us from our viral TikTok.

SIMON -Yes.

KATE - Well, hold your horses people. This is our show. I'm Kate Monaghan and this is Simon Minty over here, and we are the hosts of the BBC Ouch podcast.

[Jingle: Ouch]

SIMON -These up and coming TikTok viral people, yeah.

KATE -Yeah. I don't even know what TikTok is, thank you very much.

BETH -It's kind of like a mix of all social and media platforms put together. It's the new Vine mixed with YouTube and Instagram all together.

KATE -It looks like you guys are having an amazing time in all your videos. You guys are Ellen Watson and Beth McDaniel. Where are we speaking to you guys from?

ELLEN -From Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

KATE -And what are you up to? Like, are you at university? Are you working?

BETH -So we're currently both studying at university in Belfast, and we're also working in retail as well at the same time. So, busy schedule.

KATE -So those TikTok videos. You've got a little white disc. Each of you have one on your arms. What is that?

ELLEN -That is the best invention to ever happen to the two of us. It's called the FreeStyle Libre, and basically it is trying to stop you pricking in your finger. So when you prick your finger to check your blood glucose level it comes straight from your blood. You really should be doing that about four or five times a day, but you can lose feeling in your fingers, it's a bit of a hassle to carry the kit, whereas this is a new invention, and basically it's a wee needle on a disc the size of a 2p coin, and it's inserted into your arm and it takes your blood glucose from your interstitial fluid. And you can scan that with your phone and it will give you what your sugars are on your phone, so how handy is that? No pain at all.

KATE -That's amazing.

BETH -We just accidentally got an arm scanner in one of the videos.

ELLEN -It's a wee needle on a disc the size of a 2p coin and it's inserted into your arm and it takes your blood glucose.

BETH - And that's why we're viral. And so I think it was really just an accident and then we thought, okay let's go with this and use TikTok, and it kept on getting bigger and bigger.

SIMON -And then people went ballistic for it, asking about it, what was it all about?

BETH -Yes. People started to pick up on it, and that was actually our viral video, that was the one that got 500,000 overnight. It's nearly on 700,000 now, because people have seen it and they were tagging their diabetic friends, going, "Isn't this what you have in your arm?" and, "Oh my goodness, they must be type one diabetic." And then even non diabetic people were commenting, "What is this? Like, why do you have this in your arm?" So it did cause a lot of conversation.

KATE - So how did you guys meet and then how did this Diabetic Duo come together?

ELLEN -Beth and I both went to nursery school together, so we were about age three, but then we didn't see each other for like 14 years, just because we went to different schools, and it was only whenever we both went for our first part time job in a shoe shop we met again. So we were about 17. I was type one at the time, but Beth actually hadn't been diagnosed, but everybody used to call us the Iconic Duo, because we look similar, we do everything the same. So then when Beth got diagnosed it just made more sense to be called the Diabetic Duo.

KATE - And what's it like waking up and you're suddenly a viral hit?

SIMON -Are you asking me?

KATE -No. [laughter] I don't think that's ever happened to you yet.

ELLEN -It's just been crazy, but what I loved, I really identify with some of the young people messaging us, because I was that 13 year old who's commenting that they felt ashamed about their scanner and what I would have done to have two girls like Beth and I to look up to and to be like, well they're normal and they're wearing it and they're not afraid to have it on show. Like it really would have helped me. So it makes us both quite emotional.

SIMON -I'm clearly not your audience, because I'm a little bit older and stuff like that, and clearly I didn't even know what it is, but it really made me laugh when there was one where you were like, "You'd better watch your hypos!" and then you start drinking something, and it really made me laugh, because you're having fun with the worst bit. Is that a bit too naughty, or can you get away with that?

BETH -My doctor's great. She's younger, she's really supportive and even though we're poking fun and maybe highlighting the issues and the problems that everybody has and having a bit of fun out of it, because what's so enjoyable are the comments are, "Oh my goodness, that happened to me," or, "Oh, I did that too," and then you can laugh about it. Why sit and make yourself feel bad about certain things when you can make a bit of fun out of it?

SIMON -I agree. I think it's fabulous, and also it's so tongue in cheek, that's the great bit. There are some facts around this which actually links back. So according to Diabetes UK one in 15 people have diabetes and there are 100,000 people in Northern Ireland with the condition. If you've got 100,000 in Northern Ireland and you've got 700,000 you're way beyond the diabetes community now.

BETH -Yeah, I suppose actually, when you think of it that way. I suppose we are reaching quite a lot of people, and not even just in Northern Ireland, there's people from all over the world messaging us, which is just so bizarre. It's so hard for us to take in, you know, it really hasn't hit us yet.

SIMON -And there's something lovely about you both being young, glamorous, and you're kind of out there, and I love the other video where you're without makeup and then with makeup and it's just normalising it but also you're hitting the right audience.

KATE -I mean, just a couple of the comments that we've seen on there is like somebody said, "My ten year old son, Ellis, diagnosed two years ago, loves your videos and said, 'I wish this was me.'" And someone else said, "I can relate. By the way, you have encouraged me to feel more normal." So what's that like to hear?

ELLEN -It's just so lovely. I really, really love reading things like that, because it is such an isolating condition to have, especially if you don't know anybody with it, because there is such a stigma around it, misunderstanding, and a lack of education. So when you tell people, "I've got type one diabetes," they almost look you up and down like, okay, well what weight are you? How many…?

KATE -Is that because the stigma around type two diabetes is that it's for people who are more overweight?

ELLEN -Yes, definitely. There's so much education around type two and I honestly would say there's next to none on type one. But I got diagnosed at age six. Thankfully my mum was a nurse so she recognised the symptoms and I was diagnosed fairly quickly, but type one really is just you have that gene and something will bring it out of you, whereas type two, type two can be a range of things, such as if you're elderly, sometimes pregnant women can get it, but a lot of the time it is down to your lifestyle choices. So like your diet, your weight, the exercise you do, but we're trying to raise awareness that type one really, you can't help that you have it, it's life long, so you've just got to embrace it and get on with it.

SIMON -You don't do type two first and then get type one, you just jump straight in?

ELLEN -Yeah, so type one and type two really are completely different illnesses, which is kind of the point that we're trying to get across. So type one, it's more genetic, you are predisposed to it. Now, what's freaky about Beth and I is there's no family history of it, so we really are like the first in our families. But I got diagnosed aged six. Thankfully my mum was a nurse so she recognised the symptoms and I was diagnosed fairly quickly, but type one really is just you have that gene and something will bring it out of you, whereas type two can be a range of things such as if you're elderly.

Sometimes pregnant women can get it, but a lot of the time it is down to your lifestyle choices. So like your diet, your weight, the exercise you do, but we're trying to raise awareness that type one really, you can't help that you have it, it's lifelong so you've just got to embrace it and get on with it.

KATE -Ellen, did you spot the signs in Beth before she went to the doctor?

ELLEN -Do you know? I really didn't. You see Beth's little sister got diagnosed eight days before her, which is crazy, it even adds more craziness to the story. So it was such a shock, and I remember meeting up with Beth to go shopping like three days before she was diagnosed, and she was really down and I just didn't really think anything about it because I literally remember Beth texting me, "Ellen, I think I've got diabetes, my sugars are 20." And my mum dropped the washing basket. I just instantly started to cry, I couldn't believe it.

KATE -So what is sugars at 20?

BETH -So basically in a non diabetic their sugars will be between four and seven, so when I got my sugars tested and they were 20 that is a lot higher than they should have been and that's because obviously I wasn't given insulin. Because when you're a type one diabetic every time you eat you give insulin injections, depending on what you're eating. And because I wasn't giving any because I didn't know I was diabetic obviously my sugars had spiked.

KATE -And what are the symptoms that we should be looking out for?

ELLEN -There's a brand new campaign about the four Ts. So there's thirst. That was one of my symptoms when I was six. Oh my goodness, for the size of me as a six year old I was drinking water in litres, it was crazy. Then there's also tiredness. You're really lethargic, you can't move. There's thinner. So you can lose a lot of weight. Because your sugars are so high it kind of eats away at your body fat. And the last one…

BETH -Toilet!

ELLEN -That's what it is. [laughter] That is it.

BETH -Oh, that was a huge one of my symptoms, like I was going to the toilet five times a night. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I mean, every ten minutes I needed to go to the toilet. I kind of knew in the back of my head, especially after my sister, and I didn't want to say anything because Ellen had been living with it, and I didn't want to be disrespectful and be like, "Oh, I think I have type one diabetes," and be dramatic about it, but when I got my sugars tested, oh goodness, I texted her straight away.

SIMON -I mean, this is the bit I love about both of you, you're so kind of cool and comfortable and having fun with it, although Ellen, for a long time you did try and hide it?

ELLEN -Yeah. So when I first got diagnosed through the whole of primary school, you know, you're always in your parent's care. Children at that age, I found they didn't really care that much, it was just when I joined high school, so obviously you're like 13, you care how everybody thinks of you, you want to impress all the girls and boys. And when you're sitting in the canteen you didn't want to lift out a big kit with a finger pricker and testing strips, injections, needles.

So I would have hid, and maybe wouldn't have injected. I maybe wouldn't even have eaten anything, which is so dangerous, because you care so much about how other people think of you, and now that I've grown up I really don't care because why should I? I have this illness. So what, I have to deal with it. And even in just the last six months of Beth being diagnosed I honestly can't explain to you how much my confidence has just grown, because you're doing it with your best friend, like it's just so nice to wake up in the morning and inject, but somebody else is injecting beside you. It's great.

SIMON -We talk about this a lot, and when you start to hang out with people who've got something like you it can be really strong, really powerful, but if your best mate's as well already I mean that's awesome.

BETH -Yeah, oh definitely. Like it's so bizarre. Sometimes when we're eating dinner together we literally just stop and reflect, "I can't believe we literally both have this now."

SIMON -The injecting bit, that's the bit which… When I'd had surgery I had to inject every day for a month.

BETH -Oh, really?

SIMON -Well yeah, and I learnt how to do it and then I got a bit blasé about it and then it went a bit wrong and then I had to do it properly. But you're doing this how many times a day?

ELLEN -Four or more.

SIMON -And you have to keep moving round where you inject?

BETH/ELLEN -Yeah.

SIMON -Because?

ELLEN -You've to be very careful because if you keep injecting in the same place you can get these lumps that absorb all your insulin and stop it from working properly. So it can be very, very dangerous because then you won't know how much insulin you're actually giving.

SIMON -And Beth, when you were diagnosed you had some sort of training or support, yet your sister, who's younger, got completely different support?

BETH -Yeah, because my sister is still considered a child, she's only 12, she stayed for two nights. Now, she was diagnosed a lot later on, mine was caught quite early, but she was there for two days and, you know, the children's ward is so amazing, and so was mine to be fair, like they were so kind and all, but I just was kind of shipped in and shipped out. And I was just so overwhelmed. I suppose I am 20 so I am considered an adult, but the follow up call was good, like I have a really good medical team and our clinic is amazing and Ellen and her family gave us a lot of support as well, because obviously they know so much about it.

SIMON -I mean, you are an adult but to have that and be the age that you are that's a big thing. I mean, I'm really glad that you've got Ellen around to sort of lean on.

KATE -There are stats from Diabetes UK that say that people with diabetes are twice as likely to develop depression and things like the sudden focus on food and weight, that can lead into body image issues and can trigger an eating disorder. So what's it like for you behind the camera?

ELLEN -I did struggle with eating when I was younger because the question like… and your family doesn't mean to, but every day you're being asked, "Well, what are you eating? How much are you injecting for that? Should you really be eating that?" And it got to the stage where I was like, well I'll just not eat, or I don't want to inject so I'm not going to eat anything so I don't have to inject, which is so dangerous, I do not recommend that at all. But Beth and I love being in front of the camera, so being behind the camera with each other's support, we just love getting glam, we love getting dolled up, but we do do the videos with no makeup on as well to be like, don't worry, we're not this glam all the time, there are times we look very rough. [laughter]

But I can definitely see how the depression rate could be higher, like sometimes even because of the hype of the videos, you know, when you go to bed and it's all quiet and you're trying to sleep and you're just with your own thoughts, I try to think like if I didn't have all this hype and glamour around me like would I have dealt with it as well? Because it's only been six months since I've been diagnosed and sometimes I do have to be like, oh my goodness, like I can't believe I have to inject myself four times a day. And you have to count every carb you're eating and if you don't calculate it right you could have a hypo which is so inconvenient when you're going to class, you know, you just think why me?

KATE - Well how do you cope with that in terms of going out? Because obviously you guys, it looks like you have a very good social life and you perhaps enjoy having a drink and all the stuff that you do at university. How do you balance the two things?

BETH - It's quite hard to get alcohol right, and I think we've got the perfect wee combination going; we've tried everything. [laughter] Because they recommended to us that we just drink spirits because cocktails have a lot of sugar and they literally make your sugars sky rocket. So we would have spirits with like a sugar free mixer and then switch to a sugary mixer, because alcohol lowers your sugar levels so you just kind of have to switch between the two mixers.

ELLEN - You have to try and create a balance and they recommend you always eat something before bed, even if your sugars are high, to keep you stabilised. But really it works differently for everybody so everybody should check with their medical professional. It's a whole range of things can affect your blood sugar levels, even what mood you're in. If I'm really nervous my sugars can be really low, whereas if I'm really stressed like if I'm doing exams my sugars would have been high sky.

KATE - Wow, how interesting.

BETH - And also if you've exercised earlier in the day that can affect it. There's so many factors and everybody's body reacts differently to insulin.

ELLEN - How many hours sleep you've had. But there are times where like me and Beth have been in class together and both of our sugars have gone low at the exact same time and then we're both trying to fight over who can have the last drop of Coke, which we really wanted to make a TikTok about it but we were afraid our teacher would shout at us. [laughter]

SIMON - Where do you get your ideas to keep knocking out these videos?

BETH - Well, we kind of look at what the trends are and you need to know what hashtags you're putting out there. We both study marketing so we try to use our techniques that we've learned, because obviously we want to reach as many people as we can. So we would try and like learn a dance that's going around and put a diabetic spin on it.

SIMON - Love it, love it.

KATE - So what is a diabetic spin?

BETH - Well, Ellen, do you want to give some examples?

ELLEN - Well, like for example there was a whole chain of people using, do you know that song, 'You'll never see me again'?

KATE - Yes.

ELLEN - So there's a whole chain of people like walking out the door so we turned it into like when our doctors see our blood sugars for the month and then for the 'You'll never see me again' part, it was us walking out saying like goodbye to Coco Pops, goodbye to midnight snacks, goodbye to nights out, you know, that sort of a thing.

SIMON - And are you going to finish your degrees? Are you going to suddenly disappear into sort of influencing freedom or…?

BETH - Oh no, of course we're going to finish.

ELLEN - No, we need to finish.

BETH - We're business women!

SIMON - Nice.

KATE - Quite right too. Would you put yourselves in the disability category? Some people in the type one diabetes world say they are, some people say they aren't. Where would you guys place yourselves?

ELLEN - Well, I actually never thought I was, and it was only when I went to university, I was almost horrified because they emailed me and it was like, "Can you come for a disability meeting?" And I remember going to my mum and being like, "Am I disabled?" And my mum was like, "Well, I suppose when you think about it, like there are aspects that are." And it is hard when you hear that about yourself when you're thinking, I am so physically abled. But I suppose it is a disability. When your blood sugars go low there are times when you can't move and your brain doesn't work at its full capacity. And I don't think of it as a bad word anymore, I really go and embrace it because you have to just take it in your stride, it shouldn't be something that's seen as like a no, no word that you can't use.

KATE - Absolutely.

SIMON - I really like that approach, and there is kind of an old philosophy around disability which is circumstantial, so if the three of us had dropped into the middle of the Sahara Desert with nothing I might survive a bit longer than you two, so that would be disabling. But in your normal life with all your kit the impact is less so because you've got it sussed.

BETH - Yeah.

SIMON - There you go, a bit serious.

BETH - That's a bit scary when you think of it like that.

SIMON - There you are. Don't put that into a video, it won't go viral. [laughter]

KATE - So what's next for the Diabetic Duo then?

ELLEN - We just want to keep making videos, working away at uni and just seeing where it all takes us. We would really like in the future to become like the female Ant and Dec.

SIMON - Oh, yes.

ELLEN - Or a Holly and Phil on 'This Morning', that's the dream.

KATE - Can I give you some quick fire questions?

ELLEN - Yes.

SIMON - What should you never say to a diabetic?

BETH - What weight are you?

KATE - Weirdest place you've ever injected?

BETH - Outside a police van.

ELLEN - We were in the middle of filming our injecting in strange places video, so we were like we need to get a video in front of this riot van.

KATE - And what's your top tip on how to make a cracking TikTok video?

ELLEN - Pick a dance or song that's going viral, put your own spin on it and make sure you use loads of hashtags.

KATE - Are you ready for that, Simon?

SIMON - I think I need a bit more guidance, but I'm glad we've had this conversation.

KATE - That's it for this episode of the BBC Ouch podcast. Thank you so much to Ellen Watson and Beth McDaniel.

SIMON - And if you like this show there are plenty of BBC Ouch shows. A couple which I really like because you can basically hear me and Kate losing it a little bit. There is the one with Maysoon and Tilly, do you remember that? We couldn't control that one.

KATE - Oh yeah. No.

SIMON - It's called, 'I was expecting mediocrity and you blew me away'. And the other one is when we had Tim Renkow.

KATE - And he kept falling out of his seat.

SIMON - Plus we asked him a question and he just blanked us. That one's a joy and that one's called 'This disabled comedian is a jerk'.

KATE - And if you want to find us say, "Ask the BBC for Ouch" to your smart speaker and you can hear us there too. Today's producer was Beth Rose and the studio manager was Ross Saunders.

BETH - Thanks so much for listening to BBC Ouch today. I am Beth.

ELLEN - And I am Ellen.

BETH/ELLEN - And we're the Diabetic Duo.

KATE - Goodbye.

SIMON - Bye.