Back to School with type 1 diabetes

As I write this, I can't get that facebook photo from last year of the mother leaping for joy as her kids waited glumly for the school bus out of my head. That's me at the beginning of the holidays but there's definitely more joy at the end of the holidays. Somehow my response of “that's excellent news! Let me get my chores list.” to the “I'm bored” comment didn't go over as well as I had hoped :-( Back to school is upon us again. How quick the summer passes? New books, new classrooms, new teachers and for most it’s when parents dance with glee and even though, our children say the don’t like school, they are excited to go back.

But for parents of children with type 1 diabetes, it involves meeting the new teacher to go over your child's care plan or maybe trying to secure a special needs assistant for your child. It's having a new set of people to train in your child's type 1 diabetes. Because no two people with diabetes are the same.

I know a lot of the parents of children with type 1 diabetes in community groups have been exchanging valuable experiences and advice here in the private facebook group.

Here's a couple more resources that might also help with getting back to school. It's also worth mentioning that Diabetes Ireland Cork office run a Diabetes Teacher Training day every year in October that you can share with your school. You or your school can find out more about this by contacting the Southern Regional Office, Cork by phone: 021 427 4229 or Email: corkcarecentre@diabetes.ie

Back to school resources and planning

Inspiration for this post came from Diabetogenic.

Diabetes Ireland's Back to school Resource Pack.

Diabetes UK's Resources for Schools, Parents, Teachers and Students.

Beyond Type 1's The Caregiving Conversation

Raising the Roof and some Funds for Thriveabetes

I haven't done a blog post in a while because there was A LOT of this going on.

And it was wonderful. Then, it was back at it!

Freshly recharged from my holidays, and two days post jet lag, myself and Phil headed to Naas, Co. Kildare to the fundraising concert organised by Pete and Pam Kavanagh (she says it was him, he says it was her) for Thriveabetes 2018.

All I had to do was show up and say a few words, which was harder than it sounds, especially when you only put those few words together in the hotel room two hours before the concert. :-O

First, we had a Seat raffle for a gorgeous rose gold Citizen ladies watch worth €230 donated by jewellers Macintyres of Edinburgh, which was won by Launa, who without even thinking donated it back to Thriveabetes. The watch was then auctioned after the break and raised another €100.

Then, Date night truly began.

The Opening act was Pete Kavanagh and his guitar who was joined by the magical haunting voice of Pam, who many of you will know from the Diabetes Online Community. Before finishing their son, Cayden, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 18 months ago, joined his parents on stage to give us the blues on his harmonica. See photos below.

Next we had “Hally and the Hymns”, who is currently undertaking a project called “Peeling Onions” where he releases one song and music video every week for the entire 2017.

After the break we were thrilled with the golden voices of the Cahill Sisters accompanied by their brother Mark, who sang songs I fondly remember from my teens. I truly look forward to hearing their own music.

Then, the Clare (via Kildare:-D) man himself, Luka Bloom, he has been formally adopted by Clare, whether he likes it or not, who raised the roof.

The DOC selfies.

A diabetes fundraiser is a great place to meet some of the diabetes online community and meet some new offline ones. This one was no different-I wasn't out of the car park when I bumped into my first DOC’ers of the night :-)

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Missing from selfies was Rebecca Flanagan - where did you go???

The Thank Yous.

Raffle Ticket sellers; Pam’s sister, Claire, Steph Barclay and Phil Miesle. You worked hard and made it count!

Brian Corrigan, fellow D-Tribe member and Thriveabetes organiser for donating his "sound" & light services.

Another member of the diabetes community, Ben Kelly for his talented MC services.

The local businesses in Naas who sponsored fantastic raffle prizes;

• Conway Photography,
• BM Stairlifts Ltd,
• Donegans On Main Street Naas,
• Jam Music Company,
• David Murphy Naas Pharmacy,
• Barker and Jones, Naas,
• Meadows and Byrne,
• Turnstyle Charity Shop Naas,
• Formal Wear Naas,
• Ben Kelly Photography
• Duck & Cup Café
• Mary Power-Cooney theatrics

And pre booked ticket prize from jewellers, Macintyres of Edinburgh

Our musical artists who donated themselves;

• Hallymusic,
• The Cahill Family,
• Pete Kavanagh Music
• and Luka Bloom.

They were all outstanding and I encourage you to listen.

• The Moat Theatre and all the volunteers involved in running it. We know what that's like.
• Celine Garvey from KildareFM’s ArtyFacts
• Aisling Conway photographer from Kildare Now Newspaper

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And most importantly The Kavanagh Family, who came up with the idea, ran with it and were put through the ringer all last week pushing the publicity for the concert. They raised a whopping €1,600 after costs.

Roll on Thriveabetes 2018 on Saturday 24th February in The Red Cow Hotel, Dublin. Speakers and the programmes are being finalised soon and Registration will open in October.

Watch this space!

Type 1 Siblings to climb Kilimanjaro

In 1999, Diabetes Ireland were the very first diabetes related national charity in the world to bring a group of people with diabetes to the summit of Kilimanjaro. And I'm proud to say there was a Clare man among them back then. We featured Michael Murphy's account of that climb a couple of months ago. This year, Co. Clare will double that representation on Diabetes Ireland’s trek to Kilimanjaro with a type 1 diabetes sibling duo from the small east Clare village of Broadford.

Diarmuid and Michelle Moloney both have type 1 diabetes. Diarmuid, now aged 21, was diagnosed 2008 and Michelle, now 27, was diagnosed six years later in 2014.

Michelle is a primary school teacher in Dublin and Diarmuid is a recent graduate in physical education and Irish from University of Limerick.

The trip will take place from Thursday September 21st until Sunday October 1st. The expedition will last 10 days and walks/treks will accumulate over 100km with the summit being 5,895m (the highest free standing mountain in the world). Diabetes Ireland said; “Our trip in 2016 was hugely successful from both a fundraising point of view and the number of people reaching the summit. 20 of our group of 21, including 6 with Type 1 Diabetes and 1 with Type 2 Diabetes all reached the summit… an incredible achievement by the group.”

Prior to the expedition, Diarmuid and Michelle need to raise a total of €10,000 between them, €6,000 of which they have. This money will go towards Diabetes Ireland's continuous efforts in areas of advocacy, research and education around the condition.

They also want to raise awareness about type 1 diabetes and I thought the best way to help them achieve this is to share their plans with the diabetes online community. So that you too can share their story. They have a facebook page set up to keep everyone updated - Michelle & Diarmuids Kilimanjaro Trek for Diabetes Ireland

Let’s give their page a couple of hundred Facebook Likes and welcome them to the wonderful diabetes online community.