The teenager who set up a diabetes charity at primary school

Since he set up a charity to help diabetics Lochlan Murdoch’s journey taken him to classrooms across the country – and even to 10 Downing Street.

As well as meeting the then Prime Minister Theresa May the 16-year-old, from Cumnock, has been honoured with a British Services Citizen Award for services to the community.

However Lochlan, who launched his charity while still at primary school, is even prouder of something else, beyond the recognition.

He told BBC Scotland News: “We’ve done stuff in schools and hearing some of them say they think I’m cool, and just helping them acknowledge they can do things despite being diabetic – that’s really big”.

Lochlan was only a week into primary school when he started experiencing a number of health issues.

He was thirsty all the time, continually tired and needed the toilet much more than usual.

His mother Lesley and father Scott wondered if it was because of warm weather, or maybe anxiety about starting school.

However the problems persisted, and the truth soon emerged – Lochlan was a type1 diabetic, meaning his pancreas was not producing insulin.

Lesley recalls: “We handed a sample of his urine in at the surgery and within 20 minutes we were on our way to A & E, where the diabetes team were waiting on us.

“His blood sugar levels were through the roof.”

The condition means that Lochlan has to rely on other ways of taking insulin, whether through pumps – which he is now on – or manually injecting it into himself with needles, through an insulin pen device.

But there are other aspects too, from constantly monitoring levels via finger prick tests to checking what food could send levels rocketing upwards.

A 2023 survey found around 36,000 Scots have the condition.

But in those early years, thoughts of helping others with the condition were far from Lesley and Lochlan’s minds, as they tried to adjust to a major change.

“It can be a lot of pressure on your shoulders as a parent,” says Lesley.

“You’re monitoring their blood sugars all the time, and there’s a fear when you put them to bed they’ll have a hypo [a sudden drop in blood sugar levels] and won’t wake up.”

Lesley also noticed that there was a lack of knowledge about type 1 diabetes among people she met.

This included some conflating it with type 2 diabetes – a version of the condition that can often be handled through diet rather than injections.

“It can be quite challenging to bite your tongue sometimes,” she says.

“When you’re a parent and you’re hearing things like ‘did he eat too many sweeties’ or ‘it could be worse, it could be something like cancer’ – you wouldn’t say that to someone with another condition.

“The big thing for me is trying to reduce that stigma.

“For example, taking part in football and exercising does help type 1 diabetics, but it’s nothing to do with losing weight, which you’ll often hear people assume.”

The way Lesley and Lochlan aim to reduce stigma is through Lochlan’s Legacy.

The charity has its roots in an incident that changed Lochlan’s life for a second time.

In 2018 the football-daft youngster broke his leg while playing the sport with friends.

Stuck indoors in what the teenager jokingly calls “the middle of nowhere”, his mental health declined, something accelerated by his diabetes.

“When he went back to school after the summer, and you’re type 1, it can be difficult”, says Lesley.

“You have a new teacher and you have to trust a new person that will look after you.

“He was doing that while recovering from a double leg break, and we noticed a decline in his personality and moods.

“We thought he was either going to burst into tears or get angry at some point – luckily it was the first one, and a really good classroom assistant, Sarah Taylor, was there.

“She got him to talk. He was using parts of the diabetes to avoid doing stuff.”

One place he found an escape was going to see Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

That love of football helped turn his depression into something more positive, as Lochlan created a stadium marathon challenge for charity.

It saw him walk around all 12 of the SPL’s football grounds, plus Hampden Park and Townhead Park, the home of Cumnock Juniors.

It raised over £10,000 for charity and earned him a trip to Downing Street.

While there, another guest suggested to him that he keep going with helping others.

And by the time Lochlan’s train had rolled back into Scotland, the charity idea was in bloom.

“We can’t quite believe how far the charity has come,” says Lesley.

“Our son allows us to tell the whole story, including the good, the bad and the ugly of diabetes – we don’t hide the cracks.”

In recent years the charity has held information sessions, workshops and fun days, all aimed towards spreading awareness of diabetes and what it means.

A number of athletes with type 1 diabetes, including Hibs defender Jack Iredale, Raith Rovers winger Paul McMullan and golfer Hannah McCook, serve as ambassadors.

It also offers a CPD accredited course in understanding diabetes for sports coaches.

Now Lochlan’s hard work has placed him on the shortlist for the BBC’s Make a Difference awards, in the Active category.

The winners will be unveiled at a ceremony in Glasgow next month, with results then announced on BBC Radio Scotland’s Mornings programme with Kaye Adams on 29 September.

Whether he wins in his category or not, for Lesley, the charity has been a massive benefit to Lochlan over the years.

“He’s much more confident – he doesn’t feel the need to hide this condition.

“Type 1 diabetes has changed our lives completely, but in a lot of ways it has given us opportunities we would never have had otherwise. It doesn’t stop you doing anything.”