This weekend I had the pleasure of attending my very first Input FUSION event, I believe the first since Input diabetes charity combined with JDRF UK to help support people with diabetes, particularly around information provision and access to technology. The agenda for the day was an interesting one and the event itself was held in the legends lounge of Birmingham City football club, located just outside Birmingham city centre, a location I know well and have found memories of from competing so frequently there as an athlete. Input fusion was introduction by Leslie Jordan, originally of I ..read more

The theme for this year's Diabetes Week was all about Seeing Diabetes Differently. What's great about the themes set by Diabetes UK is that they're open to interpretation. So the way that I interpreted the theme was as an opportunity to show people, perhaps who aren't aware of/ have a background knowledge of diabetes, about the thoughts, processes, actions we go through when living with the condition, each day. Day 1 As sport and diabetes are what I get asked most about and of course the topic of my blog, this seemed like a great place to start, as I find that there are quite often tw ..read more

The Talking About Diabetes (TAD) Conference, that I had the pleasure of attending a few weeks ago is going on tour and hopefully coming to a city near you, due to popular demand! The dates and places are as follows; Birmingham- 18th June 2019 Liverpool- 17th June 2019 Bristol- 19th June 2019 (sold out) Oxford- 20th June 2019 I have the honour of being one of the speakers at the Bristol event, which I'm afraid has already sold out. But there are other opportunities to be part of the other diabetes events, that not only offer talks from interesting and engaging speaker, but also giv ..read more

This year I had the absolute pleasure of attending TAD Talks 2019 Event (Talking About Diabetes Conference) which was held in London at the Royal College of Surgeons. I was a speaker when the event was in its 2nd year, so it was excellent to be in the audience to enjoy the 4th year. For those who haven’t had the opportunity of attending yet (I would recommend it), the event involves people with diabetes coming together to listen to a range of different speakers, sharing their own perspectives on life and adventures with the condition. The fact that the event sold out in a matter of min ..read more

When I went onto my insulin pump 10 years ago, it wasn’t necessarily a choice for me as it was a necessity, because despite being grateful to have the option, it was offered because my diabetes wasn’t behaving in the way it 'should' and I was desperately in need of a new treatment option. Then, when I changed insulin pumps a few months later, to one that suited my diabetes life and training needs better and I got to choose the colour, I started to recognise the importance of making the choices that were mine to make about my diabetes.  In some ways it seems obvious, with the nature ..read more

This Sunday I had the pleasure of joining a team of 30 people, made up of families and children with diabetes to climb Pen-y-Fan, a mountain in Wales. Whilst summiting the mountain was a feat in itself, we know as people with diabetes that sometimes there are more mountains for us to climb than just the hilly kind. But that this shouldn’t be a reason not to set off in pursuit of our goals, and this was really the importance of the day, firstly to show that physical activity is possible when done safely, with type 1 diabetes. But also to highlight how resilient people with the conditio ..read more

As you might have seen on my social media, I'm really excited about the launch of the NEW Carbs and Cals World Foods book. I'm excited for its arrival for a number of reasons, the first being that Carbs and Cals, the original diabetes version (the book is part of a series, but also stands alone) played a central role in my learning to carbohydrate count almost a decade ago. The app version is also still something I keep with me on my home screen on my phone, that I frequently use at home and abroad to help me count my carbohydrates and help me manage my diabetes. Having that quick, visual ..read more

This blog is not so much a comparison of these two insulins but a reflection of their different behaviours for me and how this has led to very different approaches with managing my type 1 diabetes whilst training. To fill you in on the background I've had diabetes for nearly 18 years, 7 of these were on injections and 10 years after that have been on an insulin pump using Humalog in it and the remaining time has been on Fiasp insulin. Things were going along okay on Humalog, but in the past year and a half I started noticing a change in the way my blood glucose levels responded to food ..read more

Hba1c, time in range, both or neither? These have been hot topics for discussion amongst the diabetes community in recent months. I've had diabetes for 18 years coming up and hba1c has always been the gold standard measure of how my diabetes has been behaving over a 3 month period. Simplifying how it works, I'm aware that it measures the sugar that has attached itself to our red blood cells, with the theory being that the more time sugar that has been swimming around the blood and not in the muscles or being stored, then the more time it has to attach itself to the cells. But the thing a ..read more

Recently I had the pleasure of travelling to London to attend a patient reference group with some fellow diabuddies, new and old, with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. I had a little time spare from the meeting when I arrived and the meeting was located near to Oxford Street, so I ended up wandering into one of the fashion stores on the famous street. As I was leaving the store, a jewellery stand caught my eye, because it advertised that you could personalise items with a name of your choice. Well, as you can relate, diabetes is never far from the mind and strangely enough I'd been thinking th ..read more