People with type-one diabetes rely on taking insulin shots every day just to survive.

A procedure called islet cell transplant can change that, but there are many obstacles.

Sweets were off limits for Pam Dallmann since her diagnosis of diabetes when she was six years old.

As an adult, Pam has lost her job, her driver's license and her vision in one eye.

She checked her blood sugar day and night until she had her islet cell transplant.

Islet cells are in the pancreas, and produce insulin which are destroyed in people with insulin dependent diabetes.

To get enough cells, doctors must use multiple deceased donors and that can be costly, risky and impractical.

Now doctors are experimenting with a single donor which means fewer patients, but it has worked in the first eight patients.

Literally, the minute the islets are infused, the problem is eliminated. Islet cells can reverse diabetes, not only for weeks and months, but possibly for a lifetime,” says Dr. Bernhard Hering, from the University of Minnesota.

Today Pam is insulin-free and life has never been sweeter.