Meeting Three at The New Madeira Hotel, Marine Parade, Brighton
The lovely people at The New Madeira Hotel are really getting to know us now - so much so that they expect to be harrassed whenever we're there, but they're always on hand to help if we need it!
We welcomed a fair few new faces to the meeting, including a load of younger people who we'd like to welcome to the group and very much hope they all come back for more.
Chairman Alex Hawkey welcomed all and sundry to the meeting and first pointed out one of the focusses of the evening - a raffle to raise money for the group. The prize being Desang's best-selling diabetes management kitbag, very kindly donated by Sue Marshall, Managing Director of Desang. Second place was awarded a basket of fruit - we're all up for encouraging healthy eating and this huge thing could have kept you going for weeks on end! Congratulations to both our winners and thanks to everyone who bought a ticket - we raised a tremendous £82 for the group. If you have any further suggestions for raffling prizes, please contact us with any ideas.
Alex spoke about a variety of events that had already taken place and outlined the successes of Diabetes Week and calling for any more volunteers to do fundraising. Thanks go to Chris, Sabine and Dani who all expressed an interest in helping to raise funds in a variety of ways. Watch this space for news on their ventures!
Sue Marshall from Desang then took to the stage and spoke in some depth about diabetes management. Having had diabetes for 35 years, we felt that few in the room are as qualified to do this as Sue - and, after having various talks and presentations from professionals in healthcare, it was a great opportunity to hear about diabetes from a diabetic's perspective and how Sue came to set up her company, off the back of her diabetes. Also, having spoken to several people afterwards, it became clear how appreciated Sue's outlook on life is and how her humorous approach to her diabetes is quite refreshing and inspirational to us all. To learn more about Desang, please visit their website and, whilst you're at it - buy a kitbag! They're really very handy and keep all your diabetic belongings in one place at one time, whilst also being stylish and trendy.
The evening concluded with a talk from Angela Style from the Diabetes Campaigners Network, or DCN for short. The DCN work with Diabetes UK to campaign for better healthcare services in the UK and support those who would like to see changes made to the way diabetes is treated on the NHS. Angela presented with a slideshow and answered questions from the audience too, whilst encouraging those present to express any concerns they had either to Diabetes UK themselves or to the group so that any issues can be tackled accordingly. Huge thanks go to Angela for joining us and travelling down from London for the occasion - we over-ran by quite some time, so hopefully she got her train in time!
Our next meeting will be our AGM - Annual General Meeting - held on Tuesday 11th September at our collective second home at The New Madeira Hotel. Please come and join us from 7:30pm. More details can be found at our Diary page.