Conference

Diabetes UK Volunteering Conference

The conference took place over the weekend of 13^th & 14^th November at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nottingham. It began with the Annual Public meeting and a special event for family support groups. 

After lunch, the conference was officially opened by Professor Simon Howell, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Diabetes UK. He was followed by John Davis and Dr Moira Harrison, speaking on Insulin Pumps – how can we campaign effectively? It was interesting to hear about how, once again, the NHS seem to be running a postcode lottery with this important healthcare issue. Although there are strict criteria for receiving an insulin pump, their cost (at nearly two and a half thousand pounds each) and the age of the applicant seem to be also taken into account. 

Then the conference was addressed by Simon O’Neill, Director of Care, Information and Advocacy Services. He spoke of the need for better information, better choices and better health and the need for information technology in Care Planning so that any test result for a particular patient would be available to all the professionals involved in their care. 

We were then given a Diabetes UK update by Clare Lemon, Head of Marketing and Amanda Neylon, the Website Manager. Their website is being updated and can be viewed at http://www.diabetes.org.uk.

This was followed by Jonathan Tritter from the NHS Centre for Involvement on why user involvement is important. The final event of the afternoon was an interesting conversation where Radio Gloucestershire presenter Manny Masih chatted to Craig McDermott from the Scottish Ambulance Service (who has just received a letter stating that as a diabetic on insulin he is now allowed to drive in emergency situations); Sharon Sutton, a volunteer and healthcare campaigner from North Staffs (a big believer in insulin pumps); Dean Puzey from London (a young volunteer whose sister is diabetic); and Shane Board, a singer, martial arts star and Harry Potter body double who tried to ignore his diabetes but has now taken control and achieved good management. Some interesting points of view were exchanged with audience participation! 

At the evening dinner the Volunteer Achievement awards were presented by Richard Lane OBE, honouring groups and individuals who had raised both money and the awareness of diabetes in their local area. The H G Wells award was presented to Ben Carlisle who set out to raise awareness of diabetes following the tragic death of his partner Jennifer at the age of 25. (More information can be found online at www.jenniferfox.org ) 

On Sunday, following a question and answer session with the Chief Executive and Trustees the rest of the conference was devoted to a review of some of the ongoing research projects which are being undertaken following grants by Diabetes UK. These included the DECIDE study into the psychological, social, physical and economic outcomes of home vs hospital management at diagnosis for children with Type 1 diabetes; FACT (Families, Adolescents and Children’s Teamwork) studies on how family communication regarding diabetes management affects blood control in adolescents with diabetes; and the links between cardiovascular disease and diabetes- a study being undertaken at the University of Glasgow. These were all informative and well presented talks illustrating just how much our contributions to Diabetes UK can do. 

To sum up – this was a very interesting conference where Diabetes UK showed their appreciation of the work done by the volunteer groups around the UK. It was good to meet and talk with volunteers from other groups, to find out what was working for them and how they were campaigning for better awareness of diabetes throughout the country. Look out for new initiatives coming from our group soon and join in whenever you can. In the words of the Senior Management “We are all Diabetes UK”.

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