Following up from my previous post, Gareth Johnson forwarded the response from the deparment of health. The response is as follows:

Dear Gareth,

Thank you for your letter of 20 October to Andew Lansley enclosing correspondance from one of your consistuents about Type 1 diabetes. I am replying as the Minister responsible for policy on diabetes.

I note your constituent’s concerns about the number of people in the UK with Type 1 diabetes and I also note their call for medical research into the issue.

Your constituent may be interested to know that the Department of Health funds NHS research and development through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is currently providing infrastructure support for 88 studies specifically concerned with Type 1 diabetes via the diabetes clinical research network formed in 2005.

Alongside other organisations that represent the voice of people with diabetes, the Department works with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which focuses on finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

Your constituent may also be interested to know that the Department is also funding the Yorkshire Diabetes Register project. The aim of the project is to describe the epidemiology of diabetes, investigate the molecular and environmental causes of the disease, and facilitate health services research.

In addition, the Medical Research Council (MRC) funds a broad portfolio of diabetes research amounting to £28.1 million in 2008/09. Of this, £6.6million was directly relevant to type 1 diabetes. While many of these studies involve both Type 1 and Type 2, they include underpinning studies and studies on the prevention, treatment and downstream consequences of Type 1 diabetes.

Neither the Department’s NIHR nor the MRC usually ring-fences funds for expenditure on particular topics. Research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. Both organisations welcome applications for support into any aspect of human wealth and these are subject to peer review and judged in an open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the scientific quality of the proposals made.

I hope this is really helpful.

Yours sincerly,

Paul Burstow

I recently wrote to my local Conservative MP Gareth Johnson to get him to help raise awareness of type 1 diabetes. My letter to Gareth Johnson is below:

Dear Gareth Johnson,

I am contacting you as someone who lives in your constituency who has type 1 diabetes. I support a medical research charity called Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) which raises money to fund research into type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is a separate and distinct condition from the more common and widely known type 2 diabetes. It is an autoimmune condition that is caused when the body mistakenly attacks the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Estimates put the number of people in the UK who have type 1 as high as 390,000 and incidence of type 1 diabetes is increasing by about four per cent each year, particularly in children under five. It is not known why this trend is occurring. At present, there is no definitive answer to what causes type 1 diabetes. Therefore, whilst improvements in public health could help reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes, the only way to reduce the incidence of type 1 diabetes is for the cure to be found, which ultimately requites greater  investment in medical research.

More funding for medical research into type 1 diabetes will lead to the development of better treatments for type 1 diabetes, resulting in fewer complications and hospitalisations, and eventually the cure. It will also result in cost efficiencies for the NHS budget. JDRF is a global leader and driver of this research but investment from Government is vital to drive forward developments.

I would be grateful if you would write to the Minister responsible for Innovation and Science on my behalf to ask him to ensure that the budget for medical research into type 1 diabetes is not cut and that greater investment should be considered.

I would also be grateful if you could stress the difference between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Rebecca Ireland

I received a response in four days, which I thought was quite a timely response. The response from Gareth Johnson is below:

Dear Ms Ireland,

Thank you for contacting me about type 1 diabetes.

I agree that raising awareness of the differences between type 1, or juvenile diabetes and the more widely know type 2 is very important. It usually first develops in children or young adults and I understand that, in the UK, about 1 in 300 people develops type 1 diabetes at some stage.

Progress has been made with the National Framework for Diabetes, but improvements must continue. The new government has developed several policies that I believe will help those with type 1 diabetes, such as focusing on personalised care that reflects individuals’ health and care needs, and a relentless focus on outcomes to drive up standards of care across the board.

I will certinaly bear in mind your concerns on this important topic in the future, and have passed them on to the Department of Health. I will provide you with a copy of the response that i receive.

Yours sincerely,

Gareth Johnson

I hope that you can also contact your local MP about your concerns for the lack of Type 1 awareness in the UK.

I was dreading, but also looking forward to this programme, as I was intrigued as to how they were going to  portray Diabetics, but I also knew it might anger me. I didnt actually manage to watch it on the Monday night, but managed to catch up on wednesday night.

Well to be honest I have mixed feelings about that programme. I feel they did a good job of showing the effects of bad control, but then I feel they should have worded some parts better. The programme fitted in with the whole series, including stab victims and liver damage due to alcohol abuse. Although they did portray all diabetics to be like this, and I dont feel this will help the opinions of people who already know so little about diabetes. I have often been asked if I got diabetes from eating too many sweets as a child, or if I was an obese child. I try to keep calm when someone asks me this, but obvious I just explain that the reason I have diabetes is because I had a virus and my anti-bodies attacked my pancreas cells rather than the cold virus, so basically my body malfunctioned and now I have to deal with the consequences, boo hoo!

Whilst watching that programme I did find some of the young diabetics immensely irritating and frustrating, I just wish someone could change their attitude and educate them on how to deal with their diabetes, so it wont come up and bite them in the bum in the future, which we know it will if they don’t act soon.

I did think the message from that show was strong, with the falling off toes, amputated legs and abssesseson the pregnant lady, it certainly gave me a fright! I did however feel for the medical staff, I cant imagine how much of a frustrating job it must be knowing they are trying to help, but those diabetics simply don’t want help and miss their appointments. I must admit I liked the honest doctor, he really said what he thought, and was trying to be there for them, but they clearly didn’t take him serious, I cant imagine how tiresome that makes his job.

I do feel that the programme could of thrown in a few extra facts, like the differences between type 1′s and 2′s, as they only really mentioned that one girl was type 2, but never stated that with the others.

During that whole show the one thing that really angered me, was the mum of the 15/16 year old type 1 diabetic girl. She really didn’t care about her daughter, she had no idea about the condition, I found this most upsetting and her mother should be ashamed. No wonder the girl didn’t want to deal with her condition she had no support from her mum. I was diagnosed at 8 years old, and I know that if my mum wasn’t there for me and helping me I wouldn’t of been able to do it.

Another big concern for me was the 21 year old who was admitted to the hospital with DKA, and a blood sugar level of 50mmols! This utterley shocked me, I honestly didnt even know 50mml was possible, the most I have ever had is 28mmols and that was when I was diagnosed thirteen years ago! I just cant understand how someone can ignore something like that, he is the same age as me, yet I feel so much more grown up than he is about the condition. I tend to feel abit groggy at 14mmols, let alone 50mmols, I cant imagine how he feels. I assume if he is constantly high he doesn’t have no signs of hypos of hypers.

Even though some points annoyed me slightly, I am glad I watched it, as it has made me realise how different people deal with their diabetes. I have read a few different articles and opinions about this programme, and have listed them below for anyone else to read.

Here are some other valued opinions on the programme:

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=10205

http://www.talkingbloodglucose.com/2010/08/educating-masses.html

The following charities also made statements on the programme:

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/News_Landing_Page/TV-programme-unhelpful-in-dispelling-diabetes-myths/

http://www.jdrf.org.uk/news.asp?itemid=1582&itemTitle=Channel+4+programme+%27The+Hospital%27&section=23&sectionTitle=News

Its finally live, sorry for the delay, been super busy.

The purpose of my site is to portfolio my latest work, and keep a blog of certain affairs that interest me.

As you may (or may not) know, I am a Web Developer/Designer so I may occasionally blog about the web, but I am also Diabetic so I will mostly chat about that too.

I hope you enjoy reading and browsing through my site

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