VOLUNTEERING CONFERENCE 2009

Conference this year was held at the Ramada Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester over the weekend of 10/11th October and was attended by Pat and John Housego on behalf of the Aylesbury & District Group. It was an interesting and informative weekend. The meeting was opened by Professor Sir George Alberti, Chair of the Board of Trustees and Douglas Smallwood, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK who both stressed the growing importance of the voluntary groups. The new Diabetes campaign was then introduced by Richard Lane OBE, President of Diabetes UK. The campaign is called "Lets Get Serious". It continues on from last year's campaign but encourages people to register their support for Diabetes UK and to pledge to do something. Delegates were encouraged to sign up on-line at Conference and to pledge their support. You can sign up and make your own pledge at www,diabetes.org.uk/GetSerious. Through the numbers signing up Diabetes UK will have a bigger voice  with which to lobby Parliament and try to bring about changes for all those living with diabetes.

Throughout the day there were other talks on User Involvement, Advocacy, World Diabetes Day and Paul Farrelly , who spoke with great passion about his European Cycle Challenge which he had recently completed. More on theses subjects will be mentioned in newsletters throughout the year. In the evening The Volunteer achievement awards were presented. Sunday began with a question and answer session with the chief Executive and the Trustees. This was followed with talks about some of the latest research projects and a look at some of Diabetes UK's plan for research into 2010 and beyond. The closing address was given by John Grumitt, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees who emphasised the five year plan of quality care for all, help towards a healthy lifestyle and research for a better life. In all of this the on-going work of the volunteers was recognised and valued.

For us this conference was a good opportunity to meet and talk to other volunteers from all around the UK. Many of the groups are facing the same problems as us - falling membership and inability to attract new members. Diabetes UK also acknowledged that they too had seen a fall in membership and income this year. It was interesting to talk to other delegates about things they had tried in their groups and what had worked and what had not. We will feed this information back to the committee and hopefully use it to influence the future direction of the group.

VOLUNTEERING CONFERENCE 2008

This year our Chairman and his wife attended the conference which was held on 18-19 October at the Hilton Hotel in Leeds. The opening session discussed the impact of “The Silent Assassin” campaign. This is Diabetes UK’s biggest-ever UK-wide advertising campaign. It aims to increase awareness of diabetes by highlighting that diabetes is serious – it can cause heart disease, stroke, amputation, kidney failure and blindness.  However, the campaign also includes the important message that you can learn how to beat it. With early diagnosis and by leading a healthier lifestyle and improving diabetes control, the risk of developing these serious complications can be minimised. Opinions of the campaign were mixed but Diabetes UK felt that it was effective because it was getting people talking. They also announced that research had increased by 53% and it was going up year by year. A total of £15 billion worldwide has gone towards research into diabetes.

Overall membership of Diabetes UK  now stands at 180000 this has been fairly stable for the last 3 years. Altogether 677000 voluntary hours are spent  campaigning and collecting and there are now 389 voluntary groups nationwide.  The Treasurer reported that no monies had been invested in Icelandic banks and that there had been a 25% increase in revenue.

Next year will be the 75th anniversary of the charity. New fundraising was proposed for next year in conjunction with Splenda—“Care for a Cuppa” Day. This will be launched with celebrities between Feb and April next year. The issue of test strips for Type 2 was also discussed—these should be unrestricted. The retinopathy test should also be a yearly entitlement for all diabetics—although there are many places still where this does not happen. The delegates were also made aware of several cases of drivers being arrested as being under the influence of alcohol when in fact they were having hypos. At the evening dinner the Volunteer achievement awards were presented. More information about the conference can be found on the Diabetes UK website at www.diabetes.org.uk

Diabetes UK Volunteering Conference 2007

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”.

The information presented on this site is for general use only and is not intended to provide personal medical advice or substitute for the advice of your physician. If you have questions or concerns about individual health matters or the management of your diabetes, please consult your diabetes care team. Products highlighted on this website are not necessarily endorsed by Diabetes UK.