Check your fridge and cupboards for Insulin for Life

Thriveabetes takes place on this coming Saturday, October 1st in Naas, Co. Kildare. Bringing the type 1 diabetes community together. Tickets have been sold out since mid September and we have a waiting list in operation. However, there are 40 names on the waiting list making it impossible for everyone to get a ticket. I have already made enquiries for Thriveabetes 2017 to ensure that we can accommodate a larger number of delegates and have room for everybody.  

This week's blog post is a reminder from Sarah about the Insulin for Life collection at Thriveabetes. I would like to extend a huge thank you to Sarah for taking this project on and thinking of everything.

Guest Post from Sarah MacCann, Insulin for Life Collection Contact; 

Did you know that insulin is one of the most commonly discarded drugs in the developed world? Every year tens of thousands of vials end up in landfill or incinerators, and 75% of this discarded insulin is still in-date. All of this, while 50% of people around the world in need of insulin, struggle to access or afford it.

We will have an Insulin for Life collection point at this year's Thriveabetes. Insulin for Life is an organisation that sends unwanted diabetes supplies to countries where the population struggle to afford them.

So if you have; – No longer needed, unopened and in-date insulin, with at least 3 months to the expiry date; – Unopened packets of syringes, lancets, needles; – Glucose test strips please bring them along to Thriveabetes. They will then be sent to the IDDT (Insulin for Life’s local partner in the UK) who will send them on to a project supporting children and young people with type 1 diabetes in Tanzania.

Unfortunately, we can only take unopened, unused and in-date supplies. So even if you have used that glucose monitor or lancing device only once, we won't be able to send it on for someone else to use.

I've done a quick check in my fridge and cupboards and found this little haul - never opened, never used! So please have a look, you never know what you will find.

If you would like more information, you can contact me on email i4eireland@gmail.com. You can also read the guest blog post about this initiative here.

Looking forward to meeting you on the day Sarah

What's so special about Thriveabetes?

For me, connecting with so many people who live with diabetes in the online and the offline community was, to quote someone else, "like finding an important part of my diabetes care that I didn't know I was missing until I found it!" I had spent years feeling like I needed something more in my care and I thought it was something that my medical team was lacking but once I found this community it was like a "Doh!" moment.

Thriveabetes 2016 takes place in less than three weeks. There are approximately 90 adults living with type 1 registered. There are approximately 90 parents of children with type 1 diabetes registered and there are 62 children aged 5 to 16 years registered, 90% of whom have type 1 diabetes.

Register soon and join us in Naas, Co. Kildare on Saturday 1st October.

Here is a selection of photos from last year courtesy of volunteers, Hailey & John Flanagan.