If you’ve been on any of our social media platforms in the last week, you will have heard about the insulin petition. Let’s talk about it… Read more: Let’s talk about the insulin petition Please sign the insulin petition! Before we begin, if you haven’t already signed the insulin petition, please do so now! Essentially, the National Department of Health has signed a tender saying that insulin pens in public clinics will be replaced with vials and syringes as of 1 May 2024, and we need to raise our voices to say that this is unacceptable. Insulin vials and syringes are outdated and difficult t ..read more

In December, we heard of a young girl diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes because of the #WearBlueforDiabetes & Know the 5 campaign we ran in November for National Diabetes Month. Obviously, we wanted to find out all the details! Here they are… Your daughter was recently diagnosed. Could you tell us what happened? Late last year, in November 2023, my daughter had flu twice in the same month and didn’t seem to recover completely. I had to pick her up from school as she could not cope. This was weird as her immune system is usually very strong and recovers quickly. Then I started noticing that s ..read more

How do Ramadan and diabetes combine? What are some guidelines for Muslims wanting to observe Ramadan? We asked Dr Nafisa Khan and Tahmeed Omar to share their insights. The PRO-Active TElemedicine TaCTical OpeRation (PROTECTOR) programme was a telehealth pilot intervention to support people living with poorly controlled diabetes. You can read more about it on the Percept website. Aim of PROTECTOR programme The aim of the intervention was to see whether a short telehealth-delivered intervention could help patients in the Klipfontein and Mitchells Plain region of Cape Town to optimise their diabe ..read more

We know that it can be hard to take in all the information you need to manage diabetes. If you’re looking for an easy way to understand diabetes, these Diabetes Stories can help! Gcina Mhlophe, South Africa’s favourite storyteller, has created 5 stories about living with diabetes. They all have the same TEEL message. Choose which one you’d like to watch first:   How to manage diabetes   Remember to take your medication   How to eat healthy – and tasty   How to make exercise fun   How to lose weight if you need to Diabetes Stories to listen to or watch 1. How to ..read more

This is a tricky one. Does your doctor understand you? Do you understand your doctor? Let’s talk about doctors and diabetes. The old-fashioned approach I think the relationship between doctors and diabetes used to be quite straightforward. The doctors understood diabetes, the person living with it did not. Doctors told us what to do, what to eat, how much to inject, and we tried to follow their advice. That is all changing now. There’s a growing awareness that the lived experience of diabetes – actually living with the condition – is far more valuable than book learning, which is what doctors ..read more

Living with a chronic condition comes with a certain amount of stress. How you manage that stress will determine the effects it can have on your sugar levels. There are many definitions of stress but simply put: stress happens when pressure exceeds your perceived ability to cope. It is an emotional strain or tension that occurs when we feel that we can’t cope with pressure. How does stress affect you? Because of stress, and my blood sugar, I landed up in hospital last week. Reading was 30.4 when admitted. Johan It usually drops when I over think or stress over the inevitable Phenyo All ove ..read more

It’s nearly the end of the tax year! Which might not mean much to you, but means that some people and companies are looking for tax-deductible donations to offset their tax liability. Here’s how Sweet Life can help. Tax-deductible donations Sweet Life is a PBO, which means we can issue Section 18A certificates for any donations made to us. These certificates allow you to donate up to 10% of your taxable income, reducing that taxable income which leads to less tax being paid. Section 18A certificates mean that taxpayers donating to a PBO can claim a tax deduction to the value of the donation m ..read more

“This book is written in an approachable style by a person living with Type 1 diabetes. It serves as a management and care guide, emphasizing on sick day protocol and providing advice on relationships and travel,” says author of the book, Gabriela Richter who has been living with Type 1 diabetes for 18 years. Can you tell us about your book? The book is a comprehensive guide to Type 1 diabetes — all the things we know but forget. Why did you decide to write it? The book was conceptualised years ago over coffee and cake, hence the title. With my friend Annchen Farerria, who has since passed awa ..read more

Do you ever feel guilty about your diabetes? About the choices you make and the food you eat, for example? Bridget McNulty shares some thoughts about diabetes guilt. Diabetes is such a strange condition, isn’t it? On the surface, it looks like it’s all about food and medication and exercise: a purely physical condition. But just below that surface there are all kinds of emotions rolling around… Today, I want to talk about diabetes guilt. What is diabetes guilt? I’m not a psychologist, so I’m not professionally able to define diabetes guilt. But for the last 16 years, I have spent every day wi ..read more

The 2024 Diabetes Journal is here! What a beautiful way to kick off the New Year. Together with Abbott Diabetes Care and FreeStyle Libre, we’ve created a super-helpful 2024 Diabetes Journal. It’s all about the essentials for a happy life with diabetes. Although the focus is on Type 1 diabetes, there is plenty that will be helpful for Type 2s as well – just as the FreeStyle Libre can be a helpful tool for those living with Type 2 as well. Here’s a taste of what it looks like – download your free copy below! Download your free 2024 Diabetes Journal here! 2024-Diabetes-JournalDownload Get a fr ..read more