Are DIY gene-testing kits a good idea?

“‘It’s like being told you’re going to be involved in a car crash, but you don’t know when it will hit. You know it is going to happen but you can’t do anything about it,” says Amy Burton. The 24-year-old from Kent was diagnosed with pre-type 1 diabetes in 2014 after she tested positive for auto-immune antibodies associated with the condition in a medical trial.

Burton had initially signed up as her younger sister has lived with type 1 diabetes for the past six years and she thought the experience would make an interesting blog post. She wasn’t expecting to find out that, within the next five to 15 years she, too, would have the condition: “I did sob when I heard,” she says.

Burton already knew how devastating type 1 diabetes can be, with complications such as blindness and amputations, while research also shows it can cut your life-expectancy by more than a decade. Now, she is constantly aware of her pre-diabetic status, has started exercising more and – although she has a healthy BMI – is conscious...