Real World People With Diabetes!

Ever since I started to take a little more notice of my D a few years ago the online world has helped me in ways that cannot be quantified. Along with the questionable suggestions to get fixed with cinnamon, have come hundreds of friends around the world giving help, advice and a pick me up whenever needed. In parallel to this virtual support in the last two years has been a fantastic group of local people who I meet every couple of months. Seeing people, shaking hands and offering an arm around the shoulder when needed is a fantastic opportunity. 

Let me reintroduce Lancaster iPumps. Through the guiding hands of Hazel we are a welcoming group of people with diabetes and their associated partners and friends. Although primarily focused on insulin pump users we'll let anyone in who has an interest and a liking for tea, coffee and cake! iPumps is slowly growing and the upcoming meetings are hopefully a chance for even more to come along. We tend to have a guest speaker who comes along and mostly meetings are very informal with discussion led by the group.

The coming meetings are really exciting me so here are the details available as I go to press (just call me Peter Parker!):

March 10th - Our guest speaker is the wonderful Joanne Hall from Medtronic who's coming to give us all their latest updates along with the info behind the new 640G pump system. 

Tying in with this, next week I'm getting the chance to try the system out for a while in real life to give my views and reviews! #exciting! As this coincides perfectly I'll also be on hand to answer the "but does it really work?" questions. Of all the speakers in the coming months I rank myself as not worthy but I'm hoping I can be of some use.  

May 19th - Next on our list is the athletic Gavin Griffiths aka Diathlete!

If you've not heard about his 'small' adventures have a look at his Facebook page. As an example of the jogs he likes to take part in, in 2013 he ran 30 miles each day for 30 days and his 2014 US tour saw him take in 7 marathons in a month! We are very fortunate to accommodate him as part of his UK Tour 2015. He's popping in to recall some of his memories on his past travels and offer some fantastic sports advice I'm sure. Maybe he'll bring his 2012 Olympic Torch too?

Another huge event for 2015 is Dr Jen Nash psychologist booked to present 2 seminars for Lancs-i-pumps: 'Well-being and diabetes' & 'Emotional impact of diabetes'. 

We have been funded to put on this event as a joint seminar with health care practitioners. There will be a hot meal included - booking in advance. More info to come on this one but please save this date to be able to support the event. The more we're seen, the more we'll be able to influence local diabetes health care!

All in all it’s a great group and very, very welcoming to new people. Don’t worry it’s not like a confessional where you have to declare your HbA1c. You’re quite welcome to skulk into the back and just listen but the more questions the better. If you’re local(ish) please come along to any of these meetings and if you need help with childcare there is also have some funding available for that so no excuses ☺

See you 10th March at The Gregson Centre, 7:30pm for coffee, cake and chat!

As a tease for my next blog I'll be taking a close look at the Minimed 640G Pump System next week and there's a possibility there might be a bit of video blogging coming up - not entirely sure but we'll see if I can achieve it without breaking the camera!