Keeping her sense of humour is the trick that often helps Amelia Abraham through her rough patches. She laughed heartily as she explained to me the subtleties of socialising.

“When I go to teas I cannot really see exactly what the refreshments are and then I have to also be very careful what they are because I cannot eat everything,” she said.

In fact Mrs. Abraham’s diet is restrictive to the point that she says it completely bores her.

“I cannot have anything with vitamin K. That would kill me,” she said. This rules out all green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach and mustard greens. Green tea, cauliflower even herbs like parsley are also high in this vitamin.

The problem is that the vitamin K interacts with the blood thinner wafarin, which Mrs. Abraham takes. Vitamin K tends to inhibit wafarin which could result in Mrs. Abraham’s blood being too thick to pass through her arteries and veins.

She said most fruits are also a no-no for her. “I cannot have pineapple, kiwi, no berries, almost nothing. I am safe only with an apple, a pear or half a banana,” she said. Suffering with anaemia she is on iron tablets but has to be very careful with taking iron rich foods. “I have a long list to control my iron intake because if I have too much iron I will have to increase the blood thinner medication.”

She said this means that while she can have a small amount of pumpkin, she cannot have any squash.

“I cannot have anything with onions either. I never knew onions are high in iron,” she said.

Of course diabetes always results in a restricted diet. Insulin dependent and shooting it three times a day, Mrs. Abraham has to be extremely diligent in monitoring not only her sugar intake but also the amount and type of carbohydrate she eats.

“If my sugar is high I see all the butterflies all around me,” she said. This state of dizziness is common in diabetics who have not balanced their sugar.

“It can be so difficult to figure out how I can have a balanced diet,” she said. “ Most times I get the same thing every day and in the same amount. It can be so boring.”