Ellen Van der Kroon, from Market Weighton, is warning people not to dismiss the seriousness of the condition after her husband Gerard, 44, died earlier this year.
Gerard was a diabetic but did not control his condition correctly and drank more t
han the recommended amount.
He fell into a diabetic coma on Christmas Day and died on January 2 in York District Hospital.
He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes five years ago, meaning he had to control his blood sugar levels with insulin injections.
Ellen, 30, said: "He was in denial, he never really accepted it. The doctors tried, I tried, but he kept ignoring his condition. He was sure it wouldn't happen to him."
Ellen is juggling bring up their four-year-old son Alister and running her late husband's tyre-fitting business.
Ellen said Gerard went into a coma on Christmas Day following a night of drinking the previous evening. That evening his sugar levels had returned to normal but he remained in a coma. On Boxing Day medical staff stopped his sedation.
Ellen said: "We expected him to wake up but that never happened. A few days in and we realised he had brain damage, he'd had some sort of heart attack while in his coma."
On 31 December doctors decided to take Gerard off the ventilator that was controlling his breathing and he died two days later.
Ellen said: "Just before midnight he took his last breath while I lay with him on his bead, my head on his chest, holding his hand. It was a lot more peaceful than we thought but still a horrendous end at 44-years-old."
The family have been left with nothing except Gerard's tyre-fitting business, his condition meant he had no life insurance, so Ellen has take on the business, Crown Tyre Services.
She said: "The only thing we've got left is the business. Gerard showed me what to do a few times and if I was ever near a call-out I would go and put the spare on, I've always been involved.
"I have to carry it on, Van der Kroon, means of the crown, it's a family name, a family business."
Ellen said Gerard failed to control his diabetes correctly and that alcohol added to the problems. She said: "He didn't like being told what to do. He was meant to test his blood sugar levels first so he knew how much insulin to inject but didn't so his levels were always too high or too low.
"It has been a difficult five years since his diagnosis, he got quite agitated and it put a lot of pressure on the family when he didn't look after himself.
"I used to say 'what happens if you lose a leg or your eyesight due to diabetes?' because he ran the business and we were relying on him but he just said it wouldn't be him and he'd be fine.
"But diabetes does kill. Diabetes can rip families apart – he's gone for a stupid reason, the only person I can shout at is him but I can't because he's not here."
Ellen said that if only one person learnt from Gerard's situation it may help them come to terms with his death.
She said: "If we could have given his organs to someone it might have helped a bit but we couldn't because of his condition. Nothing has come out of him dying, just heartache and sadness."
Gerard, who was from Holland, was cremated in Amsterdam and a memorial service was held in Market Weighton at the Half Moon.
The collection was for Diabetes UK and Ellen will continue to raise money for the charity. Ellen has also set up a group of Facebook and is hoping to change the levels of support for families of people with the condition.
l Anyone wanting more information on diabetes can contact leading charity Diabetes UK. They can log onto
www.diabetes.org.uk email info@diabetes.org.uk
or phone 020 7424 1000.
