'You can lead a normal life': Inspirational teen diabetes patient writes book to help others

At the age of 15, Ruhi Kumar has learned that she can control her diabetes instead of letting it control her, and she has written a book to share her story.

"I want to tell people that it's possible to lead a normal life with diabetes," she said. "It doesn't stop you from achieving your goals and dreams. I've done everything I wanted to do as a teenager."

Since being diagnosed with type I diabetes when she was nine, Kumar has come close to death more than once when her blood sugar went too low or too high, making her vomit and faint.

Once she skipped an insulin shot because she wanted to feel "normal" during a film-and-dinner night out with friends two years ago. She ended up in Queen Mary Hospital's intensive care unit the next morning.

"It was simply the result of reckless, teenage behaviour" that gave her a strong lesson, she wrote in her book. "My health should always come first and everything else needs to take the back seat in my life."

In her 30-page book The Bitter Sweet Life - A Teenager's Journey with Diabetes published in December, Kumar documented her successes and failures in managing the disease on both practical and emotional levels.