When Erik was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1942 at the age of two, the message from the family doctor to his parents was stark:

“Do nothing. That is the only right thing to do. He will die within 14 days, three weeks."

Fortunately, his parents did not follow that advice. Instead, they had Erik admitted to Niels Steensens Hospital – today Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen (SDCC) – where he has received treatment ever since. Steno's very first Chief Physician and Medical Director, Hans Christian Hagedorn, was also Erik's first doctor.

Erik was admitted quickly despite the family doctor's “recommendation" because his father worked as a caretaker at what is now the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen on Nørre Allé. At the time, it was called the Danish School of Physical Education, and the Laboratory of Human Physiology was also located in the area.

It was here that Nobel Prize laureate August Krogh, who brought insulin production to Denmark together with his wife Marie Krogh, worked. Erik's parents therefore received advice and guidance from one of the laboratory's professors, who collaborated with Hagedorn. Two-year-old Erik was admitted the very same day.

“I have been lucky"

Erik is living proof of how long and how well one can live with type 1 diabetes – even having grown up in a time when diabetes treatment was undeniably very different from today.

“I make an effort to be happy with life," says Erik, who has always paid attention to his wellbeing with diabetes and, as he puts it himself, has not always been “well-behaved."

Today, Erik experiences some neuropathy in his feet, but nothing that causes him significant problems.

“I have been lucky, as a doctor once told me."

The doctor was the former Chief Physician at Steno, Torsten Deckert, who passed away in November 2025.

Listen to his story here in danish with english subtitles: