We are winding down the Thriveabetes planning for 2017 and taking a well earned break for the holidays. This is always a good point to say "Thank You" for the outpouring of support we have received in planning an event like Thriveabetes and how grateful we are for all of that support. Thriveabetes would not happen if our community did not support it - thank you so much for every "like", comment, share, click and subscription. If you are new to Thriveabetes or new to the diabetes "club" I've put together a mini review of our 2017.
Here are some of our 2017 highlights for us.
October
As 2017 began, we launched into planning our next major Thriveabetes event at a level that was sustainable by our team of volunteers. In October, we opened registration to Thriveabetes 2018 which takes place on Saturday 24th February in The Red Cow Hotel, Dublin. As of this morning, we have 135 people registered with children's’ places filling up fast.
Advanced booking is required to attend. We do urge people to register early as last year we completely sold out two weeks before and had a huge waiting list that we couldn't accommodate.
People can register on our website here.
Our event focuses on the everyday challenges of living with type 1 diabetes and we have speakers from the US, UK and from all over Ireland. Learn more about our speakers here.
August
The Kavanagh Family in Naas pulled out all the stops to help us raise the funds we needed to make sure that the cost of an event like Thriveabetes 2018 is completely covered. They organised a concert with some amazing artists including Luka Bloom.
May
We were very fortunate to have Dr. Stephen Ponder, author of “Sugar Surfing” visit Ireland and ask us to organise a workshop on this method of managing glucose levels in the real world. Here’s is my review of what I learned at it.
Guest Posts from the Diabetes Community
We love it when members of the community send us their stories to share and we hope to continue to share stories from the diabetes community in 2018. Here's a collections of those stories:
- Managing Type 1 Diabetes in College by Emma Wright, pwd
- Finding Diabetes Support by Davina Lyon, pwd
- Taking Diabetes to Mount Kilimanjaro by Michael Murphy, pwd
- Diabetes on The Four Peaks of Ireland by Kieran Flanagan, pwd
- Nightscout Diabetes Management by Susan McGrath, D-Mum
- It's not JUST my Diabetes by Eimear Downey, pwd
- Diabetes OFFline support is Important too by Pam Kavanagh, D-Mum
- Bright Spots and Landmines; Book Review by Niamh Downes, pwd
- Run, Rebecca, Run by Rebecca Flanagan, D-Mum
- Diabetes Project by the Sunrise Foundation by Matilda Chongwa, founder of the Sunrise Foundation
January 2018
In the new year, fully recharged, it will be all systems go for Thriveabetes 2018: confirming exhibitors and sponsors, spreading the word through the diabetes community and looking forward to an A-MAZING day on Saturday 24th February.
Thank You for your Support
None of this would be possible without our team of volunteers and the huge support we get from the diabetes community. And the main mission of Thriveabetes is to introduce as many people with diabetes as possible to peer support. For each of us finding diabetes peer support is so important to helping us manage our diabetes. I feel these images and quotes from the International Diabetes Federation’s World Diabetes Congress go a long way to explain just how much your support means to us.
“Peer support isn't about asking for help, it’s meeting other people, seeing what & how they do it- and replicate. It's just like babies learn! @grumpy_pumper #IDF2017 #doc #dedoc”
This image taken by Bastian Hauck, @tadorna, created by Manny Hernandez, @AskManny, founder of the Diabetes Hands Foundation is the best illustration I’ve seen on how peer support bridges the gap between people with diabetes and healthcare professionals.
To all of you we give you our deepest thanks and hope that you will continue to give us your feedback to improve Thriveabetes all the time.
Happy Christmas!
From the Team: Gráinne, Christine, Ken, Brian, Roisin, Eimear, Davina, and Paula.
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.
Dr. Lumb has worked with what was formerly known as the 
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.