Once again for our December meeting on Wednesday 12th we held out Christmas Social. Everyone brought along some food to for the shared buffet, as well as a lot of festive cheer.
Continue reading December 2018 Meeting – Christmas Social.
At our October 18 meeting the Group celebrated its 10th anniversary by taking a look at how our parent charity operates at the regional and national level.
The guest speaker was Gemma Jackson, the Volunteering and Outreach Manager for the South West Region of Diabetes UK based in Taunton. Continue reading October 2018 Meeting _ Diabetes UK SW Region Talk
Diabetes UK’s Gloucester Support Group is set to celebrate its 10th anniversary by taking a look at how their parent charity operates at the regional and national level.
The October meeting, being held on Wednesday 10th at Christ Church in Abbeydale, will feature a visit from Gemma Jackson, who is the Volunteering and Outreach Manager for the South West Region of Diabetes UK. Continue reading Advance Notice – October Group Meeting
For our August meeting we had Dr Samantha Kuok from Saintbridge Surgery in Gloucester, come to give a very interesting and thought provoking talk on the benefits of a Low Carbohydrate Diet.
Dr Quok explained that a low-carb diet is one that restricts carbohydrates, such as those found in sugary foods, pasta root vegetables and bread. It is high in protein, fat and healthy vegetables.
Continue reading August 17 Meeting – Dr Samantha Kuok – Low Carbohydrate Diet
For the June meeting Ian Elphick, a Senior Countryside Ranger from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust,
based at the Robinswood Hill Country Park in Gloucester, gave a very interesting talk on the work of the Wildlife Trust in its efforts to preserve as much of the flora and fauna of Gloucestershire as possible, including details of what to see at many of its nature reserve site in the county. Continue reading June 17 Meeting – Ian Elphick – Robinswood Hill Country Park
After the AGM (see “News” item: AGM Feb 17) we had a talk by Kate Dembenski, a Diabetes Clinical Nurse in the Paediatric Diabetes Unit at the Gloucester Royal Hospital.
Kate explained about how Type 1 diabetes can affect young children and that increasingly Type 1 is being diagnosed in adults, an extreme case being a lady of 90!! She also gave a brief explanation of how the hospital treat youngsters when they are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Continue reading February 17 Meeting – Kate Dembenski – Diabetes Clinical Nurse
Our December meeting and Christmas social was held on Thursday 3 Dec. It followed along the same lines as last year with all attending bring along some food & drink to share, and also a large dollop of Christmas Cheer.
This year we were pleased to welcome, Laura Pearsall, Gordon Taylor and Andrew Gravells, three local city councillors as our guests. They have all agreed to come back next April (13th) to give a talk on the ins and outs of being a councillor. Put it in your diaries, it should be an interesting evening.
As unfortunately Norman Douse our normal quiz-master was unable to attend, I took on the role, and I would like to think that all present enjoyed it, although there were one of two questions that no one had the correct answer to, one being: “Which is the first country in the world to see the sun rise on Christmas day? (answer at end of write-up). Continue reading December 2015 Meeting – Christmas Social
This year the Group were again approached by Denise Stoner from Ribston Hall School for Girls in Gloucester to ask if anyone from the Group would be willing to talk again about their diabetes experiences to the first year 6th Form students.
As part of their Health and Wellbeing A level, the girls are required, amongst other things, to understand several serious long term conditions and how they affects the daily lives of those (and their family & friends) with the condition. Diabetes is one of the conditions to be studied, and as well as finding out the purely medical facts of the condition, they have to understand how it affects the individual on a day to day basis. Continue reading Ribston Hall School for Girls
I have received some follow up to the talks given by three of the Groups members to students at Ribston Hall School for Girls last September & October (see news item of the 9 Oct 14). Denise Stoner from from the school rang to say that in the exam the girls took yesterday one of the questions was on diabetes and what effects this had on the individual and family and the treatments required to control the condition. Denise was really pleased that because of the very good talks given by Tina, Margaret and Ros last year,all the girls taking the exam said the question did not present any undue difficulty to them.
So well done to Tina, Margaret and Ros, your time and effort has made a difference.
Denise has said that she will be getting in touch later this year to ask if any of the Group members would like to volunteer to talk to next years students, so Group members be prepared!!
For our April meeting we had a very interesting and educational talk by Di Kalus, a retired Diabetes Specialist Nurse who is now a diabetes education trainer.
Di started the evening of with a quiz, having split us into threes, on identifying famous people with diabetes, which caused a few comments along the lines of “I never knew they had diabetes” Some of those that surprised me were Tom Hanks (T2), Jimmy Tarbuck(T2), Halle Berry (T1), Sharon Stone(T1) and Andrew lloyd-Webber(T2). Which only goes to prove that having diabetes is no bar to reaching the top!
