I wrote this blog post a couple of months after World Diabetes Day 2018 and now, as we approach WDD 2019 I’m hoping for a slight shift in diabetes awareness themes and have created my World Diabetes Day Wishes #WDDWishes for 2019.

I celebrate World diabetes day because it’s Dr Frederick Banting’s birthday, so yes I’m going to celebrate one of the men who created my life saving drug, insulin and has been saving lives since 1922. So, like any good celebration, there should be cake, candles and wishes. Here are my four World Diabetes Day Wishes #WDDWishes

My First #WDDWish - A Cure! Duh!

Well, number one WDD Wish is for a cure for diabetes, always worth wishing for but I’m probably not going to see that in my lifetime so I’m not going to dwell on it. So, wished for, tick. Let’s move on!

My Second #WDDWish - To Turn A community Divided into A Community United. #DiabetesTypeAll

I want to make sure that more people with type 2 diabetes feel welcomed to the online space, are not afraid to talk about their diabetes and I wish more people from the type 1 community would make sure they feel safe and supported like we are.

People with type 2 diabetes can learn so much from each other and people with type 1 diabetes can learn a lot from people with type 2, especially in coping with all those unhelpful comments, the stigma and discrimination.

My Third #WDDWish - To Stick to The Diabetes Basics without Type specificities

I really, really just want people to know the answers to two things:

What is diabetes in 10 words or less,
it is a serious, life threatening condition,
The symptoms of diabetes and the risk factors of type 2 diabetes (all the risk factors).

To do this I believe that I have to be less type specific and make sure that the words I use to talk about all diabetes are not words of shame or have a negative impact on other types of diabetes. This post explains it better than I can.

BTW - NO TYPE OF DIABETES IS CAUSED BY EATING TOO MUCH SUGAR!!!

Let’s face it, if we can’t explain it in a short sentence we lose people’s attention, you’ve all seen the eyes glaze over. So I’m not going to confuse people with types any more, I’m going to over simplify, such as:

What is diabetes?

Answer: A part of my body broke causing Diabetes which means glucose is trapped in my blood, depriving my body of nutrition. ** This explanation applies to all types of diabetes.

What does living with diabetes mean?

Answer: It means that I have to help my body turn that trapped glucose into energy using a complicated balance of all the knowledge I have about medicine, nutrition, physiology and physical activity.

What happens if I don’t have that knowledge about managing my diabetes?

Answer: It is a serious chronic condition and if I don’t know what I’m doing, or make a mistake, it can cause life altering complications or death.

This is a tough one to stick to because I really, really want people to know how difficult diabetes is to live with. It’s more complex than taking medication, avoiding sugar (newsflash! You don’t) and being active. It’s like being on a trampoline and being forced to control your bounce. Then, a bunch of 7 year olds get on with you - yep, try to control a predefined bounce now.

But I will hold back because I feel that I totally confuse and confuddle people when i try to share so much detail about how complicated diabetes is.

My Fourth #WDDWish - My Health Service to make Diabetes Care a Priority

A number of years ago, my health service made cancer a priority and today the survival rate is up to 60%. There are over 200,000 people living with diabetes in Ireland, more than are treated for cancer, the estimates indicate that the numbers of people with diabetes developing complications are a lot higher than they should be. Imagine how we could turn that around if diabetes care was delivered efficiently instead of through so many different HSE departments!

We desperately need more money invested in diabetes specialist staff, specifically diabetes nurses and diabetes dietitians who will deliver very specialized information to teach people how to manage their diabetes well and reduce the risk of complications.

That’s it in a nutshell, none of that information is type specific yet it applies to all types. I want people to know the seriousness of diabetes, that it takes and it shortens lives and that investment in care is needed and needed now to “Save the lives, eyes and limbs of patients with diabetes”.

Happy World Diabetes Day on November 14th