OK, this is not exactly what you asked, but have you read the account of the first human trials of insulin? I have to think it must be one of the most awe-inspiring events in all of medicine. Until that moment, in 1922, Type 1 diabetes was invariably fatal, and occurred primarily in children. In the final stages of the disease, those with type 1 diabetes fell into a prolonged coma from which they were never to wake. All the major children's hospitals had a ward full of comatose or near-comatose children dying of diabetes. The researchers went to the ward at Toronto General Hospital and started injecting insulin into the comatose children there, surrounded by family members who expected their loved ones to never wake again. Instead, the children woke after being given insulin. It must have seemed miraculous.

Of course it wasn't quite so simple. Accounts of the early days of insulin usage are pretty dire. They had no idea about dosage and the insulin, all from animals, was not very pure. Diabetics were to eat once per day, and measuring their insulin need was done by peeing into a container, boiling it, adding some chemicals, then doing a test on the results. Needles were glass with a metal point, meant to be used again and again, so they were not sharp and injections were quite painful. There was nothing like the precision measurements and monitoring we can do today, meaning that a lot of people had trouble getting the dosage right, resulting in a lot of health problems.

The most famous person I can think of who had a relative die of type 1 diabetes is J.R.R. Tolkien. His mother had diabetes and died of it in 1904, leaving him an orphan at age 12. She was about 34.

The disease of diabetes has been recognized for millennia, with its main characteristic that was remarked being sweet urine that attracted bugs, combined with copious amounts of urine.