October's 2016's Newsletter

October’s Newsletter

Hello everyone, and welcome to Octobers newsletter.

First and foremost, a huge thank you to Sue and Steve for helping at the 50+ Information Day on the 8th October. What a great event, lots of exhibitors and a great chance to network, lots of opportunities to go and speak to groups and for some other groups to come and speak at the group.

That happened the day before Team Wales took part in the London Bridges Challenge 2016, 10 miles, 13 Bridges zig zagging up the River Thames, a fabulous day, lots of fun (I didn’t say that at the time though!!), We started at Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea Football Club, we covered all the bridges between Chelsea and Tower Bridge, collecting stamps on each bridge to say we’d crossed them, passed the London Eye and the Imperial War Museum who now own HMS Belfast and over Tower Bridge to the finish at the Agenda Bar. What a day, we all got finishing medals and the satisfaction of completing the challenge and raising money for Diabetes UK, so a huge thank you for sponsoring us.

I’ve also arranged to visit the Ringland Medical Centre during one of their diabetes clinics to set up an information table and talk to their patients with diabetes all about living well with diabetes and about the group. I’ll be at the clinic on Thursday 3rd November. If it is well received it is something we may be able to do on a 3-monthly cycle. I am also talking with the Bryngwyn Surgery to do the same thing with them. I’ll keep you informed. If anyone would be interested in approaching their GP surgery to provide the same thing in their surgery I can supply lots of booklets etc and I would be very grateful if you would be able to tick one surgery off my list!

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November 14th is World Diabetes Day, the theme of the day this year is “Eye on Diabetes” and is going to concentrate on raising awareness of screening for eye and foot problems and everything in between. It’s generated from the International Diabetes Forum (www.idf.org) who have lots of information on their website, quite an interesting read too.

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In a change to our program Novembers meeting (17th November) will be a talk from South East Wales Energy Service, they are coming to talk about the best ways to save money and lower your energy bills, I’m sure we could all do with tips on saving money so I hope you don’t mind that they are coming along. It means we will move our quiz night to our December meeting which is the 15th December.

There is a really interesting article on the Diabetes website about Diabetes Burnout, it’s all about recognizing and identifying the signs of burnout, which is when you become complacent about testing your bloods, not eating properly, it can be the start of depression and is a really important aspect to consider if you find your attitudes changing in regards to your diabetes self-control. Really worth a read, if you do find any areas that you identify with please remember that the Diabetes UK helpline is available for you to access on 0345 123 2399 for any help and advice.

This month we welcome Dai Williams, Director of Diabetes UK Cymru and look forward to being updated on all the good things they have achieved on behalf of people with diabetes this year and what is upcoming. Hope to see you there.