ANGUS Redgwell is a normal seven-year-old country boy.

He likes to play in the dirt on the family's small farm on the outskirts of Tamworth, helps with the horses and red angus cattle, has three farm dogs as constant companions and squabbles with his five-year-old brother Harrison.

And if he is lucky he only uses a needle on himself four times a day.

Angus was diagnosed with type one (T1) juvenile diabetes on February 6, 2014, a day firmly planted in his parents' memory.

"We were lucky it was diagnosed early before anything horrible happened," mum Trina Redgwell said.

She said when Angus started drinking lots of water and having problems controlling it at night, her mother's intuition screamed something wasn't right.

"Water had never been his drink of choice, but he started drinking it all the time because he was thirsty, and he was tired at school all the time," Mrs Redgwell said.

"We knew something was wrong with him, but the doctors couldn't find anything until one finally gave him a finger-prick and urine test.

"All his sugar levels were extremely high, and he was put into hospital straight away."

There is no history of diabetes on either side of his family, so Angus's diagnosis came as a total shock.

It was also a life-changing diagnosis for the whole family.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is considered a leading not-for-profit organisation and supporter of T1 diabetes research globally.

It says there are more than 120,000 Australians living with T1 diabetes, which typically strikes young people.

T1 is an autoimmune disease that destroys the body's ability to produce insulin, which is vital for life, and requires a daily regime of multiple injections or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump, as well as six to eight finger-prick blood tests, to stay alive.

There is no cure yet.

"We really hope that some day there will be a cure, but in the meantime we are extremely grateful of the help we have received via the doctors, the diabetes educators at the clinic, and what assistance is given through public health," Mrs Redgwell said.

The management of Angus's condition is complicated and brings with it the concern of who will help him when mum and dad aren't around.

Dad Peter said Angus knows what he can and can't eat but he is only eight years old and kids will be kids.

"He is really good, but sometimes he may sneak something he shouldn't have. The finger-prick test always gives it away, though," Mr Redgwell said.

Angus said his friends and classmates at St Nicholas school had grown used to his need to prick his finger with a needle several times a day to test his blood sugar levels, and only one of his classmates was still interested enough to watch him have his needle.

"There used to be more, but now they know I have to do it and the teachers told everyone if I look low they have to take me to the office," Angus said.

"We are very grateful for the love and care Angus receives through his school and his teacher's aide, Mrs Reid. She is a fabulous lady," Mrs Redgwell said.

The family and Tamworth Regional Horse Drawn Club will hold a charity fun carriage day at the Redgwells' farm on Sunday, May 15, to raise funds to help JDRF find a cure.