A campaigning teenager has met the prime minister, who gave some positive words of encouragement.

Rosey Edwardes, from Bridport, went to No 10 Downing Street last week and shook hands with Theresa May, as well as meeting Larry the cat.

Rosey has type 1 diabetes, which was diagnosed when she was 17 months old, and she had to check her blood glucose levels at least 10 times a day by finger prick.

But after lobbying Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) with her mum Kirsty and Diabetes UK, she has been successful in having blood glucose monitoring devices available to those with diabetes in the county on the NHS.

Rosey won the Diabetes UK’s Young Person’s Outstanding Contribution Award in May and, due to all her campaigning, was chosen by the charity to meet Theresa May at a reception.

Rosey’s mum Kirsty said: “Rosey got to shake Theresa May’s hand and we both had a quick chat with her about how life-changing the flash sensor is.

“She gave a speech along the lines of, you don’t need to learn to live with diabetes, diabetes has to learn to live with you and it doesn’t have to stop you doing anything.

“We had a really nice day, it was great for Rosey to meet others doing some amazing work for diabetes and Theresa May said some really positive things, which I hope will encourage Rosey to carry on in a positive way without diabetes getting in the way of her achieving anything she wants to, and give her more confidence in the future.”

The blood glucose monitoring device is the size of a £2 and sits on the arm. It was made available on prescription for all patients who meet the guidelines.

Under the old system, it was up to individual CCGs to decide whether or not they made flash glucose monitoring available to patients in their area, meaning the CCG could decide the criteria for patients eligible for the device and decide whether to offer it at all.