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Greetings!
Hello and welcome to the February edition of Yada Yada.
This month we introduce two new members of our management committee and look at a promising gene therapy treatment that cured type 1 in dogs. We also feature the inspiring story of type 1 diabetic and Paralympic snowboarder Mike Fisher.
In T1DN related news, we secured a valuable meeting with the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman to present the findings from our survey that investigated issues people face with private health insurers funding insulin pumps. We'll have details about how the meeting went next month. Big thanks to everyone who provided us with such awesome information and contributions which enabled this to happen.
T1DN founder Kate Gilbert has had an article published which evaluates the benefits of our Reality Check forum. It's in the Diabetes Spectrum journal and has recently become available for free online here. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the online focus groups back in 2011. More information can be found in this Reality Check thread.
Enjoy!
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| New T1DN management committee | T1DN is delighted to welcome Matt Cameron and Chris Collett to the management committee following the AGM in November last year. The experience and energy they bring will undoubtedly be valuable.
Matt coordinates T1DN's social media activities on Facebook and Twitter, and Chris is managing the advocacy project on private health insurance and pumps mentioned above. It's also great news that Natasha Reddrop will continue as president for another year and that Niall Perry is taking on the role of vice president.
The management committee is a dedicated team of volunteers who meet regularly by teleconference to discuss T1DN's activities and how to provide support and information to the type 1 community. These people give up a lot of their time to make sure that T1DN continues to advocate for people with type 1. Thanks guys! T1DN is really proud of what's been achieved in the past and excited about what the future holds.
You can read a short bio of all the hard-working people on our committee on the About us page of the T1DN website.
A big thank you must also go to the outgoing committee members for their valuable contributions; their efforts are truly appreciated.
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| Matt Cameron profile |  So you can get to know some of our committee members a bit better, Yada will feature some short profiles. First cab off the rank is Matt Cameron who joined the committee in November.
How did you get involved with T1DN?
I was always a bit of a "lurker" on Reality Check. The thing that got me posting was when I decided to get an insulin pump and of course I had questions about the process. Soon after, there were some opportunities to get involved with T1DN and it went from there. My activities are primarily coordinating our social media team, working on Version 4 of the T1DN Starter Kit and providing feedback on material that T1DN is often consulted on.
When were you diagnosed? 1996. I was in Grade 6. People often say "Oh well, that was probably a good time to be diagnosed." I'm not entirely sure that there is ever a "good" time to be diagnosed, but it was at a time where I was able to get my head around the condition and manage it myself almost from day 1.
Does diabetes have a silver lining for you?
Given we have to live with it every minute of every day, I tend to believe that you need to keep a sense of humour about things and I think there is humour to be found in diabetes. Whether that is the stark memory of my dog eating a pack of glucose tablets or sharing experiences about insulin pump tubing being caught on door handles on Reality Check - that is the silver lining. Also, I've met a number of great people through diabetes.
Favourite hypo cure? Generally go with jelly babies but must admit I'm getting sick of them and looking for alternatives!
Favourite holiday destination? Queenscliff down on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria. Great history about the place.
Pump or MDI? Went 7 years on syringes, then 8 years on insulin pens before deciding to take the plunge and get a pump in 2012. I'm not sure why I didn't do this sooner, because it has significantly changed my outlook on diabetes and the flexibility in my lifestyle. Among other things, this shaped the development of my blog title, Insulin pumps need tetris.
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Gene therapy cures dogs of type 1
| We've reported previously on many potential cures for type 1 that have been tested in mice. It's exciting to now be able to talk about the development of a long-term cure in a larger animal - dogs.
Researchers at UAB in Barcelona gave beagles with no insulin-producing cells a single treatment that injected two gene therapy vectors into their leg muscles. The two genes introduced were the insulin gene and the glucokinase gene - glucokinase is an enzyme that controls how fast glucose gets from the blood to cells. These two genes act together as a 'glucose sensor'.
The treated dogs were 'cured', showing good glucose control even four years after the single treatment. The dogs in this research had their beta cells destroyed chemically - the next trials will be with dogs with naturally occurring type 1, which will hopefully provide data to move to human trials in the future.
Different gene therapies using the same vector (gene delivery method) have been previously found to be safe in humans. So while a cure via this method is still a way in the future, there is strong reason to hope that it could be safe and effective.
This research was originally reported in New Scientist and the abstract of the paper can be found here.
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| *****************Sponsored Announcement***************** |
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Type 1s in the spotlight: Mike Fisher
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In 2005 at age 18 Canadian Mike Fisher was involved in a serious motorcycle accident and had his right leg amputated below the knee. Less than two years later he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
Neither of these two setbacks slowed him down and Mike now competes in snowboard cross on the Canadian National Para-Snowboard Team, with his sights set on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Mike also gives talks at schools, diabetes camps and hospitals about how he's succeeded despite his amputation and diabetes. In 2011 he toured Canada with country music star and fellow type 1 diabetic George Canyon giving motivational talks for people with diabetes.
We think Mike's achievements and outlook deserve to be celebrated and wish him all the best over the next 12 months in the lead up to the Olympics.
Mike's story was recently featured in Diabetes Health.
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Meet ups and events
| T1DN webinar
Thanks to everyone who participated in our recent webinar featuring Sally Marchini discussing diabetes and coeliac disease, sponsored by the OneTouch Verio IQ. This was our highest attended webinar yet, and we have received great feedback via social media about what people learnt. Sally is going to be uploading a list of all the useful websites she referred to on her website at www.marchininutrition.com so keep an eye out for that. If you have any suggestions for future webinars, please Tweet or Facebook us. We are here for you, so don't be shy!
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Photo by Michael Dawes
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Big Red Run
The Born to Run Foundation is offering a 25% discount on entry fees to the Big Red Run to anyone with type 1. The Big Red Run is an ultra-marathon event held from the 8th to 13th July 2013. It's held in the Simpson Desert starting from Birdsville, with the main event being a six-day 250 km run. There are also single-day 100 km and 42 km runs.
The event includes a sunset concert by John Williamson on Big Red - the largest sand dune in the Simpson Desert. Funds raised from the event go to the Born to Run Foundation, which supports type 1 diabetes research. Check out www.bigredrun.com.au for more ways to get involved.
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| Quick shots | | Hot topics on the Reality Check online forum include:
On Munted Pancreas, parents of kids with D are discussing:
You can keep up to date with what's going on in the diabetes world by following us on Facebook or Twitter.
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Thanks for reading, and don't forget you can always send us your feedback and comments by replying to this email. See you next time!
From everyone at
The Type 1 Diabetes Network |
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