Joe Yapp, a junior doctor at Noble’s Hospital, is currently undertaking a 100km in 100 days swim challenge to raise money for diabetes, a disease which he suffers from.

The 25 year old, originally from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, explained how he thought 2021 was a fitting year to start something like this to mark the 100th anniversary of the discovering of insulin in 1921, describing it as ’the elixir of life’ for people like him with type 1 diabetes.

He has so far raised over £1,900 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Joe told us how he will mostly be completing the swims in pools like the NSC before and after work, with some open water sea swimming thrown in.

His first swim (of 60 lengths) got off to an interesting start when a nearby swimmer dislocated his shoulder, with Joe and the lifeguards having to help him out of the pool.

And his second one he went out into the sea with a fellow friend and doctor who he said was known here as ’that bloke that got swept out to sea and rescued by the RNLI’.

As someone who said he would become tired after two lengths of front crawl when he started regularly swimming last summer, Joe said he ’underestimated how difficult it was going to be’ and that his body was tired.

’Fortunately having my background, you know how to do examinations on different joints - so you’re able to kind of do that on yourself, and say "Ah, that’s the bit that’s affected today" and then look up how to fix it’.

On his website (www.joes100for100.co.uk) he details his nutrition and sugar intake, hoping this would go to show how much extra thought that diabetic people need to put in to managing their blood sugar when doing routine exercise.

’I think having committed to it [the challenge] I’m learning more about my diabetes, about small little adjustments that I can make to maximise my perfect management [of the disease],’ he said.

He continued: ’The difference with type 1 diabetes is you can never just leave the house spontaneously without [any food] and just go out for a hike, you always have to be careful when you go.

’I’ve been caught out like that in the past, you’ll end up going for a walk and then suddenly you realise that you’re out on North Barrule or something with your blood sugar levels going low, and you didn’t bring any sugar with you.’

Joe said he came here because he was ’looking for somewhere different’ to start the first two years of his career after graduating from university in Manchester in 2019.

It particularly suits him as someone who is into walking and the outdoors, he said.

He described the island as ’the hidden gem of the northwest’ with there being ’so many perks’ to working as a junior doctor here, and that he would advise it to any medical graduate - but that he would need to travel further afield to pursue surgical training.

Currently, he is working in the community psychiatry part of his rotation, with A&E next.

l People can donate to his fundraiser at www.gofundme.com/f/joe-swims-100km-for-100-years-of-insulin