Faroese woman breaks silence on living with type 2 diabetes stigma

A Faroese woman has spoken publicly for the first time about the personal toll of living with type 2 diabetes, revealing how she overcame the stigma surrounding the condition to share her story at a European Parliament event in Brussels.

Linda Kølleskov told Kringvarp Føroya that when she sat down to write a speech for the Brussels conference in January, it marked the first time she had put into words the deeply personal struggles tied to her diagnosis.

“I thought to myself that maybe it was time to break the silence about this illness,” Kølleskov said. She described how, before the event, only a few close people knew of her condition due to the shame she felt.

Kølleskov, who lives with multiple chronic illnesses, said receiving the type 2 diabetes diagnosis was the hardest to accept. “People associate this disease with living unhealthily—that you don’t eat right or exercise enough, that you brought it on yourself,” she explained. “But that’s not the case for me. That’s not the cause of my illness.”

She admitted the diagnosis felt like a personal failure, as the lifestyle changes she tried did not yield the expected results. It was only after being invited to speak in Brussels about living with type 2 diabetes that she found the courage to articulate her experience—especially knowing no one in the audience would recognize her.

Her speech resonated so strongly that it became a turning point in the conference discussions. Excerpts have since been published in a newsletter, amplifying her message beyond the event.