The InPuT team goes airborne!

It's no small secret that my favourite charity in this country is InPuT.  Led by patients, for patients, they are exclusively the UK's only charity increasing access to medical technology.  The team, made up of just two paid members of staff, Lesley Jordan and Melissa Holloway, aim to increase people's awareness of their rights to medical technology, and to advise them and guide them through how to obtain it, often giving them the key language and legislative knowledge which will allow people to speak to healthcare providers in a way they understand and will respond to. They also provide a key and impactive presence in parliamentary groups on diabetes and medical technology.

In 2012 I helped out at the series of roadshows the team put together, and saw first hand the powerful work they do, when a hope-lacking and frightened lady with type 1 explained that she no longer drove her car because she was so afraid of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugars).  A little InPuT advice and a letter to her team later, and she was placed on pump. Her heartfelt thank you letter said it all: that the UK needs InPuT to continue the work they do.

I've also seen how they work to keep their costs down and put the funds exactly where they should go.  Volunteers are encouraged to car share or take pubic transport to any events, and if Lesley can find a better deal for something the charity needs, she will find it.  In a world where charities come under fire for gratuitous expenses and disproportionate 'necessities', it is inspiring to see how dedicated InPuT are to what actually matters.  It is refreshing to see, and a privilege be part of.

This year InPuT need to raise funds in order to keep their dedicated service reaching as many as they do, so both Melissa and Lesley decided that there was only one thing for it: show their dedication to the work they do by jumping out of a plane!

Like this only muuuuuuuch higher up...

This coming Friday, 5th September, the InPut team (minus me, because I'm an enormous pansy-shaped flower) will be sky-diving their way to the ground in order to raise the vital funds they need, and they need YOUR help!

Check out their fund-raising pages here and here, and donate even £5 to help people access medical technology. 

Tell me, how much does your insulin pump or continuous glucose monitor mean to you?  Now imagine if your donation of just £5 could help someone else struggling to get one?

I've donated, can you help out too?

Lesley Jordan: show her your love!

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the Quality in Care People's Award, which seeks to give recognition to the hard work put into patient advocacy by a group of nominated individuals.  You can catch up with the post here.

My passion for my work with INPUT and the team there is well-known, and I am so pleased to share that Lesley Jordan is one of the finalists!

Lesley has been working for INPUT for years, first as a volunteer and more recently as the Chairman, after having discovered the wonderful work they do in trying to increase access to medical technology for the people with Diabetes.  Lesley, herself a type 1 for more than 40 years and a pump, Diaport and CGM user, has taken the work INPUT do and brought it flying into the limelight to highlight the challenges faced by PWDs trying to access medical technology.

Please show her your support and thanks for the tireless commitment she gives to helping people with diabetes!

Vote for her here

You helped me...Thank you...

My diabetes clinic are great.  I've been with them since I first came back to the UK and they have changed over time with me, as well as in front of me - safely leading my way into pumping and Continuous Glucose Monitoring.  Forward-thinking and personal, they know me.  And I know them.

My calls to them are often frantic and hurried, as I search for pump supplies after forgetting to call them yet again.

"That's OK Anna, pop in on Monday and someone from the pump clinic will be here to help."

Today, as I waited briefly at the counter for my Dietician and pump clinic expert, I spotted a familiar face. Let's call her 'Sarah', in case she doesn't want to be plastered all over a blog.  

'Sarah', was my diabetes nurse when I was 15 years old.  She had the responsibility of managing my clinic contact me during the 'dark years'.  Many of you teenagers with T1D, or parents of Children with Diabetes, will know what I mean; when you aren't sure if your teenager is taking insulin, whether or not they are smoking, whether they listen when you tell them you care, whether there is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe you're reading this thinking, 'I'm still there'. Well, Sarah was the one who had to see me in clinic during those times.

Sarah was one of those people with a gentle, patient way about her.  When I came to clinic, she didn't question me on the BGs over 20mmol (360mg/dl)  I was trying to forget.  She didn't berate me for the three hypos I had last night.  She would just ask, 'how I was'. We talked about what I had done well.  We talked about carbs, diets and how best to inject.  I didn't want to be there, but if I had to be, Sarah seemed OK to talk to. I could manage this.

I still remember our meetings. I remember never really wanting to be there, because we were talking something I found impossibly difficult to accept.  Why me?  Why now? Why should I care? As it turned out, I didn't truly accept it until I was well into my twenties and wanting to go to University.  Even though that University was local, I wanted to feel well enough to go, to enjoy it, to succeed.  

Seeing Sarah today as she welcomed me with a hug and a 'how are you?', and finding out that she was back in clinic again after having worked elsewhere for 10 years, reminded me how lucky I had been that I had a team who didn't try to scare or shout me into self care.  I've blogged in the past about the need to feel hope at the end of the tunnel, rather than fear.  Sarah was one of those people who never tried to use graphic images or frightening story morals to scare me into care.  Fear doesn't work. Period.

I'm lucky that I have a team who listen to my trials and triumphs and try to steer me from stupid decisions (of which there are many) while still allowing me the freedom to see if my latest bright idea in diabetes management might work.  I'm lucky that Sarah was one of the people who laid the ground rules for me.  She allowed me to come to clinic and not be harassed, but welcomed.  Sarah helped lay the seeds in my head that clinic was a safe place.

Now, I engage with my team regularly and I fund my own CGM because I finally 'get' how important this is. I willingly wear a pump because of the freedom it affords me and I know that I've been blessed not to come across any complications to this point.  

Sarah, was one of the people that helped me get there.  Patiently, quietly and without expecting thanks. Thank you.