A diabetic Dalston woman who pushed for an iconic nightclub to change its policy to allow diabetics to keep their medical kits on entry is now hoping to run the Hackney Half Marathon for the charity that supported her.

Lizzy Whirrity, 35, an Alvington Crescent resident with type 1 diabetes, was the force behind campaigning for Fabric, in Islington, to, change its door policy after being refused entry with her medical kit which contained life-depending insulin and a blood testing kit, in May last year.

Now people with type 1 diabetes – or any medical condition where vital supplies need to be carried – are given the option to leave these with medical staff or keep them to hand to make them easily accessible.

Lizzy’s campaign was backed by charity JDRF, which works to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes and support those who have it and their friends and family.

Lizzy, who was diagnosed with type 1 when she was five, said: “I wanted to go out and enjoy myself without door staff taking my diabetic kit off me and putting it in a room somewhere. Especially when you are going out this is really not good and I didn’t have a choice. I asked JDRF to help me change the policy and Fabric did that in about two weeks.”

Now Lizzy hopes to run the 5k marathon through the borough on May 10 to give something back to the charity and raise awareness about their work.

She said: “This is the first time that I have ever embarked on something like this. I used to shirk away from exercise because I didn’t really like it - but I wanted to do something for JDRF.”

“I am on track with my training and certainly enjoying it. – its quite nice reassuring because I have had my diabetes for such a long time that it is nice to reassess in terms of I still know I am in control.”

She has been blogging about her training alongside blood-testing, hypos, sports bras, and severe hangovers, on the JDRF website, and wants to promote the message anything is possible when living with the condition.

“I like doing things quite defiantly and so I just started training for this. I want to tell others in my position they can go for it. Diabetics can do whatever they want and they shouldn’t let diabetes get in the way of achieving anything that they want do.”

JDRF estimates that 1,600 people live with type 1 diabetes in the London Borough of Hackney.

For more information, visit: jdrf.org.uk.