The not exactly minutes, minutes from our Launch Night

Wow what an amazing turn out for our launch of the Newport Diabetes UK Group, I hope it continues to grow from strength to strength.

Sarah opened the meeting with a few quick words on how she came to be starting this group.

She outlined briefly how she only heard the words ‘Diabetes’ and ‘Life change’ in the whole of her diagnosis appointment and the rest was a blur but what she really wanted at that time was for someone to say, ‘It’s okay to feel like this, it’s not the end of the world’, and that really is the basis on which the support group was needed and started, so we can offer that helping advice that it’s okay.

Dai Williams, Director Diabetes UK Cymru took the floor, outlining how and why support groups are important in helping one another and by gathering a collective voice when we need to get things raised with the Healthcare Professionals. Dai outlined how important it is to have a structured committee to oversee and plan these meetings and this will be addressed at the next meeting in June with the appointment of committee officers.

Dr Kofi Oboubie, Consultant Physician at the Royal Gwent Hospital spoke and outlined the importance of the relationship between us - the patients, the Healthcare professionals, and Diabetes UK who when supported by each other can achieve so much more. It’s all about running together not following behind or bounding ahead and by following these guidelines we can be sure we are getting the care we need and if not how to address this to bring it to the attention of the right people.

Sara Moran, Volunteer Officer and Voices advocate at Diabetes UK spoke and invited people to join the Voices campaign and to invite members to participate in a Patient Reference Group on 2nd June at County Hospital in Pontypool 2.30pm – 4pm. It’s a forum for planning for the future of Patient reference groups to include Newport, here’s our chance to provide valuable feedback to those who provide the primary care for us.

Sarah closed the meeting by thanking everyone who attended and the speakers and invited everyone to mingle over coffee.

 

The event was attended by Diabetes UK Cymru representatives, Dai, Sara, Amie, Emily and Joe, healthcare professionals Dr Kofi, dietician Elaine, and our brand new DSN’s,

 

The next meeting will be 18th June, 7pm – 8:30pm at Ss Julius and Aaron Church Hall, Heather Road, Newport.

All future meetings will be held on the 3rd Thursday of each Month at the same time and place.