A man has hailed a Good Samaritan who he believes “potentially saved his life”.
Now, Aiden Winter is calling on people to make themselves aware of issues surrounding both diabetes and mental health.
The 25-year-old had gone for a walk from his mum’s home near Dalry and was sitting by the side of the road when Castle Douglas motorist David Thomson stopped to help.
Aiden said: “I’m a type one diabetic and I also suffer with incredibly poor mental health.
“I was having a really bad day and took myself for a walk. It was 15 days after I’d had an operation to repair a hernia.
“My head ‘fell off’ and just told me ‘walk’, so I did. I had none of my diabetic equipment with me – nothing to prevent low or high blood sugar.
“ I was in the dark completely.
“I ended up maybe 15 or 20 minutes down the road from the house, at which point I took a minute to sit down and figuratively I was left alone.
“I was sat with my head in my hands, relaxing – I believe it was on a bridge, which sounds and looks a lot worse than that just being where I chose to sit.
“The man – a complete stranger – saw me at the side of the road and thought he’d best check everything wasn’t as bad as it looked.
“He didn’t have to do any of it. When I told him what was going on, he said he’d run me back up the hill.
“It’s a simple fact of diabetes that if my blood sugars go too low, I will fall asleep and I will end up dead.
“No one likes to say it but that is the fact of the matter. That man potentially saved my life because I don’t think I was physically capable of walking back up that hill.”
David, who works for Fullwoodhead Dairy Supplies, said: “I’m a big advocate for mental health and when I saw him sitting by side of the road, my first thought was he was contemplating doing the worst thing possible.
“I drove past, turned round, pulled in beside him and checked to see if he was okay. His eyes were a bit glazed and he told me what was going on.
“He didn’t have his phone or his insulin pen, he was a type one diabetic so I just said to him to get himself up and I drove him home.
“I gave him my business card and said if he ever needed someone to talk to, I was more than happy to lend an ear.
“He sent me some messages to say thank you and I followed up with him to make sure he was okay.”
Aiden decided to share his experience to make other people aware of issues surrounding diabetes and mental health and perhaps look into the matter themselves.
He said: “There are some people – no matter how young or how old – who need help sometimes.
“I want to shed a light on diabetes care and mental health and wellbeing.
“You hear about cancer in the news but it’s very rare you hear diabetes coming into question because, at face value, it’s a manageable condition – but some people manage it better than others.
“It’s those people who fly under the radar because, at face value, it’s a very manageable thing.
“My main issues are diabetes and mental health, other people it could just be diabetes or just be mental health.
“It just takes one person to ask a question to a group of people and one person from that group to ask another question to another group.”
