This week's Progress in making Thrive-abetes

This week has been a good week for making lots of progress in planning Thrive-abetes.

To date we have 5 confirmed exhibitors, half our target number of exhibitors. We will publish this list soon.

Our list of sponsors is growing. We have 5 companies who have pledged donations to make this event happen.

Delegate registration will open in June. We will have 100 places for the Parent's programme and 100 for the Adult w/T1 programme. The registration fee will be subsidised at €30 per person (this will cover your refreshments)

We will have a venue booked in the next 8 weeks all going well.

And our crowdfunding campaign is gathering interest; we have had some very significant donations from very generous people. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

I also posted on my Facebook page asking all of my friends to donate one €5 each. Its my "Friends with Fivers" initiative.

Imagine what we could do, if every person in Ireland with diabetes had 5 friends who donated €5 each. Thrive-abetes would have no funding worries and the remainder would definitely put Type 1 on the fast track to a cure.

A girl can dream; can't she?

Thrive-abetes is live on iCrowdfund.ie

Conferences like Thrive-abetes cost money, unfortunately. 

Most of the cost of our conference will be covered through delegate registration and exhibitor fees. But we still need to raise €6,000 to ensure that this event takes place.

On the 22nd of January we launched a crowdfunding campaign so that we could raise this shortfall. We are using an Irish company called iCrowdfund.ie, based in Tuam, Co. Galway.

"Crowdfunding is a way of raising money by asking a large number of people for a small amount of money. Until recently, financing a business, project or venture involved asking a few people for large sums of money. Crowdfunding switches this idea around, using the internet to talk to thousands – if not millions – of potential funders." 

In our case, we are asking people to ask their employers for a donation. All donations are directed to Diabetes Ireland (registered charity no. CHY 6906) where they will be ring-fenced for our conference.

If 60 businesses/employers make one donation of €100 each, or 120 businesses giving €50, we reach our goal! 

How can you help?

The success of a crowd-funding campaign depends HUGELY on making as many people as possible aware that the campaign is happening. 

You can help by;

• Posting this link on your social media page and asking people to share it. Here is the post I did on my Facebook page. Feel free to copy it. 
• Consider asking your employer to donate to the campaign. If you feel nervous about doing this, contact me and I will email you a form letter that you can adapt for your own employer.
• Do you have any friends or family members who own businesses that would donate?
• Maybe you and all of your friend would donate €5 to the campaign?

Please help us make this happen!!!

Photo from Bad Apple Photography

Welcome to the Thrive-abetes Blog

Well, what is Thrive-abetes?

Thrive-abetes is an abbreviation of “Thrive with Type 1 Diabetes”. It’s a one day conference for parents of children with diabetes and adults living with type 1 diabetes, taking place in Ireland on Saturday the 3rd October 2015. The event is supported by

Diabetes Ireland

, the national association for people with diabetes in Ireland (Registered Charity No. CHY 6906).

How did it come about?

I was lounging on my couch beside my hubby one Saturday afternoon looking at my registration for Friends for Life UK (FFL) and thinking to myself "Why do I have to go to London to avail of an inspirational and motivational conference like FFL?"

My ever-supportive and crazy-ideas husband said "Sure you could pull off something like that, NO PROBLEM!" Sometimes I wonder about him?

Well that's where the idea for Thrive-abetes; Thrive with Type 1 Diabetes came from.

Why do I need this event to take place?

I want to meet more people with type 1 diabetes; I want to hear their stories and draw support from them. I also want to learn more about ways to cope with my type 1 diabetes every day.

I am fortunate enough to meet some people with type 1 diabetes face to face but others are not. Through the amazingness of FaceBook, I've learned that others want what I want. We have done the research to prove it!

This conference is needed because one of the best sources of support and information to families with Type 1 Diabetes is other people with Type 1 Diabetes. We would like a non-virtual place to meet, share and support each other.

This type of event does not exist in Ireland.....until now!