One of the most ask questions in the online diabetes community is in relation to managing blood glucose and exercise, fitness, or any physical activity when you live with type 1 diabetes. The challenge of exercise reducing glucose levels dramatically, even hours afterwards, and the frustration of having to replace the glucose burned with extra calories put people off for many years.But now we have more research and more knowledge on the science and exercise is less frustrating.
We have brought the expertise of Dr. Alistair Lumb, amateur cyclist James O’Reilly and former senior county GAA footballer, Kevin Nolan. Here’s a little of what we have in store.
DR ALISTAIR LUMB
Type 1 diabetes; Managing Blood Glucose and Exercise
Alistair is a Consultant in Diabetes and Acute General Medicine at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is also one of the key organizers of the OneTouch Sports Weekend (formerly known as the Animas Sports Weekend) in the UK since it began. Thriveabetes exhibition coordinator, Christine Meehan, who has been an enthusiastic cyclist, runner, boot camp participant for many years, attended this event last October and said she learned so, so much from it.
JAMES O’REILLY
Diabetes & Exercise - My Personal Experience
James was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2006, when he was 19 and only developed a passion for cycling in 2013.
However, based on medical advice, he was only doing rides of up to two hours in duration and it was only out of curiosity that he did a google search for “professional athletes with type 1 diabetes” that he realized he could go beyond. He started following the NovoNordisk Team Type 1 professional cycling team and broke through that barrier.
In 2015, James was featured in an Irish Times article because he took part in the 2015 mHealth Grand Tour which involved a 1,500km cycle with 20,000 metres of climbing over 10 days with 26 riders, all with type 1 diabetes.
And in 2016, he took part in Team Novo Nordisk’s Development Camp. James wrote a blog post for Thriveabetes just before he went off on this trip. You can read more here.
Follow James on: Facebook Twitter @semajoreilly
KEVIN NOLAN
Diabetes Doesn’t Stop You Type 1 Adult Panel
Kevin Nolan is a former Gaelic footballer for Dublin Senior team and continues to play for Kilmacud Crokes. He played on the team when they won the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship for the first time in sixteen years. Kevin was named the man of the match in that game.
Four days after experiencing the euphoria of Dublin winning the 2011 All Ireland Football Final, he was diagnosed Coeliac disease. Three months after that, in December, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. After weeks of sitting out training he did finally get back out with the team and played to another victory in 2013. He no longer plays at Senior level and is a teacher based in Lucan.
Follow Kevin on Twitter @KevinNolan7
THRIVEABETES CONFERENCE INFORMATION
Saturday, February 24th 2018 The Red Cow Hotel, Naas Road, Dublin. ADVANCED REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED Includes a hot lunch and refreshments valued at €25.
Additional Information;
Full Conference Programme and schedule
Venue Information (Getting there and Staying there)
Speaker Profiles (still waiting on a couple of speaker biographies and photos)
Register Here.
If cycling or football isn’t your thing here are a couple more Irish Sporting Role Models.
IRISH SPORTING DIABETES ROLE MODELS
Stephen Clancy Professional cyclist from Limerick diagnosed at 19, member of Team NovoNordisk aiming to make it into the 2021 Tour de France.
George Clancy, IRFU International Rugby Referee
Alan Sothern Irish international hockey player
Mary Flynn, dietician and show jumper dxd aged 41 DI mag Autumn 2010
Catherine Brady World Champion Kick
Kenneth Sweeney, Former Senior County footballer in Sligo
Alan Kernaghan Former ROI Footballer
Dr. Anna Clarke is Health Promotion and Research Manager with 
In 2016, Prof Seán Dinneen; Consultant Endocrinologist, UHG, was appointed as National Lead for the Diabetes Clinical Programme of the Irish Health Service Executive. His professional interests include developing and evaluating programmes of self-management education for people with diabetes, developing optimal models of community-based diabetes care and understanding the diabetic foot. He was part of successful bids which brought a School of Podiatry and a Clinical Research Facility to NUI Galway.
Kate has been living with type 1 diabetes for over 30 years. She is a diabetes educator, psychologist, and currently a Doctorate candidate at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She is conducting a study looking at the access to insulin pump therapy in Ireland. Prior to that, she worked as a research data manager in Diabetes Centre of Our Lady's Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin.
Gráinne has been working in the area of paediatric diabetes for over 15 years and is currently working at Tallaght hospital where we have nearly 400 children with type 1 diabetes attending our service. I thoroughly enjoy working in this area and in particular I love facilitating group education programmes for children with diabetes & their families.
Just like Joe Solo, we would find it very difficult to have a Thriveabetes without Kevin Moore. Kevin is a Consultant endocrinologist in Tallaght Hospital, Naas General Hospital and the Beacon Hospital. Kevin has been making occasional guest appearances at the Type 1 Diabetes Support group meetings in Dublin for a number of years. This is his third Thriveabetes.
Paula lives in Co. Galway. Paula’s son was diagnosed with Type 1 four years ago, when he was seven years old. Paula tutors in Counselling and Psychotherapy and is in private practice as a Psychotherapist. She believes that when someone in a family is diagnosed with Type 1, the whole family is affected. Paula would love to see families being given, not only practical, medical and educational support at this time, but also the emotional support they need. Both Paula and her husband, Philip are also involved in the Loughrea Youth Theatre.
Joe has been living with type 1 diabetes for over 50 years. He grew up in New York but now lives in California. He is a registered nurse, diabetes educator and family therapist and works extensively with both patients and professionals on the "Family-Approach to Diabetes Management"; helping children with type 1 diabetes and their families to cope with their child's diagnosis and daily challenges of living with diabetes. His ebook "A Type 1 Guide to the Universe”introduces a new way to learn to thrive with diabetes. It is the first book to integrate the psychological and emotional aspects of dealing with diabetes into the core of its approach.
It’s been over a year since the 