Our Story

About us

We know the challenges you face as someone with diabetes - and it’s our mission to make your life easier.

Inspired by personal experience, our patches are trusted by thousands of customers around the world to safeguard their continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), insulin pumps, and other diabetes devices.

How it began

One night, Emma’s Dexcom G6 sensor was ripped out when it got caught on a bedsheet. In addition to excruciating pain, she also had the distressing financial burden of replacing the £50 sensor.

Determined to find a solution, Emma and Charlie embarked on a quest for a solution. Scouring the internet revealed an answer: adhesive patches. But the options available were unreliable, frayed easily and kept coming off.

We knew we could do much better!

Our spare room was transformed into a busy workshop as we began creating and designing attractive, user-friendly CGM patches that would provide a longer-lasting safeguard.

By keeping your CGM firmly in place, our patches give you the peace of mind and freedom to live your life to the fullest. Now you - like Emma - can enjoy a night of peaceful sleep, free from anxiety of CGM mishaps!

Expanding our range

Whichever specific diabetes CGM or insulin pump you’re using, you can get the same level of protection and support. Our range includes Freestyle Libre patches, Omnipod tapes … and much more.

We take immense pride in the quality and performance of our patches. They are made using proven, effective materials and our 300+ designs are popular worldwide.

Check out all our 5-star reviews to discover what people are saying about our wonderful patches, and follow us on Instagram here for inspiring users’ stories.

Birth of our business: A month-by-month timeline of our exciting, rewarding (and exhausting!) first two years

2021

March - Co-founder Emma's Dexcom G6 is ripped out by bedding in the middle of the night. We decide to find a solution – and discover patches, although what’s available just isn’t good enough.

April - Type One Style is officially incorporated in the UK. We declare our mission: to provide quality products that help you wear your devices loud and proud. Our spare room becomes Type One Style’s HQ.

May - We make our first sale! A British Army scheme helps us get a small business loan. Our Instagram and Facebook pages are launched.

June - The wonderful Marnie Lee-Davies joins the team and starts spreading our message of positivity.

July - So many orders! So much interest! We're clearly onto something!

August - We’ve expanded downstairs into our conservatory with a huge 150kg printer! Bit cold though!

September - Our first free sticker promotion is launched … and immediately broke the internet. (Not much sleep this month…)

October - Our spookily successful Halloween collection comes out!
(Sleep? What sleep?!)

November - Our operation has finally outgrown two rooms, we move into a larger facility at a huge Kent business park. (The free heating sealed the deal!)

December - We launch our popular Festive Fun patch. We also discover the harsher realities of running a business as we experience teething troubles. We’ve printed so many Festive Fun patches we start seeing them in our dreams.

2022

January - We start 2022 leaner and wiser.12-hour days a week might seem excessive but we aren’t prepared to let down the thousands of you who now rely on our patches.

February - Russia invades Ukraine. Despite his gruelling work regime, Charlie posts on Instagram to help get aid to those people in Ukraine with Type 1 diabetes. It goes viral around the world.

March - In just three weeks, we set up an international aid operation with up to 40 on-site volunteers, packing £3m of diabetes equipment donated to us from across the UK and the US, including heavy equipment donations from NHS bodies.

We are the first organisation to get medical aid into Kharkiv and Eastern cities.
The press claimed this to be impossible - but our network of volunteers, the power of social media, and the resilience of the Ukrainian rail network make the impossible possible.

Our small, yet mighty, effort did what massive multinational charities were failing to do; and we did it just in time for those who had already been without insulin for over a week.

An incredible group of members of the type one diabetes community made this a community effort, supporting us digitally and handling as many as 1,000 inbound inquiries a day to donate aid. The community donated over £2m of diabetes supplies and nearly 4 million test strips!

April - The ongoing aid operations take precedence over the business. Charlie has multiple interviews with the BBC and ITV, features in the Daily Mail, and collaborates with the New York Times on numerous stories.

Charlie is eternally grateful for the volunteers that brought him breakfast and lunch, keeping him going; especially during a period of 4x back-to-back 20 hour+ days.

His series of interviews with the New York Times, and Mariupol survivors, will haunt him forever though. We’ve saved the lives of over 100,000 diabetics in Ukraine (46,000 children specifically), but it’s come at an immense personal cost.

May - We look for new premises. The aid operations continue and we have a full-time team on it.

June - We finally move out of our cramped office into a bigger unit. The support of our forklift-owning neighbours and many volunteers is much appreciated.

August - The company is in full swing – and we’re a little bit famous now!
It’s a record month but we’re focused on our goals, including stabilising the business.

September - Keeping the momentum but our priority is stabilising the business after a hectic few months.

October - Even more Halloween designs! We welcome a new team member, launch a ground-breaking vial case and prepare for the Christmas period.

November - A free sticker event for Black Friday. We’re packing so many orders it’s all a blur!

December - Calmer waters for a while…Charlie and Emma are married!
We close the year off with successful capital investment and are officially on the road to realizing our vision of changing the diabetes community forever.

2023

January - We launch new designs and start designing clothing (by considerable request).

February - A tricky month. Lots of business “learning opportunities”! A hugely successful free sticker event.

March - More business challenges but we’re really rising to them. A hugely successful clothing launch: we’re super happy with our range - and the awareness it will raise.

April - Big changes afoot – bringing unforeseen challenges that need to be dealt with.

May - More challenges - and a period of massive change. Everyone is pitching in brilliantly to turn our fortunes around. Lots of design launches.

June - Keep calm and carry on! And we’re out the other side…into our green and promised land! (Bonus: Charlie’s blood pressure was 11mmhg lower than in April!)

July - Charlie and Emma are off to Vietnam in August for a belated backpacker honeymoon so cramming two months’ work into one!

August - Coming soon...