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Greetings!
 Today is World Diabetes Day and many locations all around the world are hosting events to raise awareness and funds for diabetes.
As well as the global activities, WDD is an extra special date in the T1DN calendar as we send out a special edition of Yada Yada to announce the winner of our annual Seed Award. This year's winner is the very deserving Kim Henshaw. This Yada gives you a little bit of background on Kim and why we think she is incredible.
Remember to check out our Facebook page and Twitter account. Like or follow us to keep up to date with all things T1DN and other happenings throughout the month.
Enjoy!
 
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*****************Sponsored Announcement*****************
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 Learn more: Call 1800 247 827 or visit www.bgstar.com.au/ |
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Seed Award winner - Kim Henshaw
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T1DN's Seed Award, sponsored in 2013 by OneTouch® Verio®IQ, goes each year to someone who provides support, information and/or a voice for the type 1 community. There are not many people who match that description as perfectly or as enthusiastically as this year's winner - Kim Henshaw. Congratulations Kim!
 Kim was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 8. Like nearly every child with type 1 she struggled with the restrictions of the disease, but was lucky to be able to go to the children's diabetes camps run by the Royal Children's Hospital. There she had a wonderful time with other kids who were also dealing with type 1 and developed some friendships that are still strong today. Later Kim started her work with the type 1 community volunteering at similar camps, hoping to give that same positive experience to the next generation of kids.
Over more than a decade of involvement since then, Kim has met many more friends and developed a fantastic network which helps her guide people to the best support. She has helped both individuals and groups through sharing her experience of living with T1. This has included talking about the real-life experience of transitioning from MDIs to a pump, and what the adjustment can be like - an angle health professionals often can't provide. More recently, Kim presented at an Australian Diabetes Educators Association (ADEA) conference about the importance of online peer support through social media, blogs and forums. The talk was a great success in informing DEs about the range of support that is out there, so they know where to point their clients. Kim was asked to adapt the presentation into an article, which was published in the ADEA quarterly magazine.
In 2012, Kim started contributing more to the growing online type 1 community. She began blogging about her experiences living with type 1 at 1type1, and co-founded the popular OzDOC twitter chats with Simon and Renza. OzDOC (the DOC stands for diabetes online community) is a weekly twitter event held every Tuesday at 8.30 pm AEDT, which was started to build an Australian type 1 online community similar to that which existed in the US. Simon actually travelled to the US to meet the people who had become online friends after providing much needed support. His trip was dubbed 'Simonpalooza', and you can read about it at Texting my pancreas or Scott's diabetes. What an amazing example of the connections that can be formed through DOC!
 | | The team behind OzDOC |
Each week OzDOC focuses on a topic that guides discussion of how people manage specific parts of living with diabetes. It's designed for everyone with diabetes, not just for type 1s. Topics range from blood glucose testing to dealing with health professionals to personal diabetes triumphs and downswings. About once a month, OzDOC talks about something completely unrelated to diabetes so people get to know each other better. There's no fixed structure and participants can take the chat in whatever direction they want.
These chats are great for everyone, but are especially helpful for people in remote and rural areas who can't easily access physical support groups. OzDOC is really all about the people involved and the community that forms around the discussions. It provides different perspectives on diabetes and contact with people going through different stages of life and time since diagnosis. Some of the past tweet chats are available at Symplur and you can follow Kim @HenshawKim and OzDOC @OzDiabetesOC.
Kim's volunteering work led to a paid role with Diabetes Australia Victoria, which has seen her working to provide support for children with type 1 and their parents, including looking at policies to make sure early childhood settings and schools are safe and non-discriminatory environments. However, she prefers to keep her volunteering and paid work separate and continues to give an incredible amount of time and effort to helping people with T1 connect with each other and gain access to relevant, quality information.
This support is what encouraged people to nominate her; in her nomination she was described as "an absolute treasure" and we agree! Kim said she was honoured to receive the award and would like to thank the people who nominated her. We're more than happy to give her the recognition she deserves. Thanks Kim!
T1DN would also like to thank OneTouch® Verio®IQ for sponsoring this year's Seed Award. |
| *****************Sponsored Announcement***************** |
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 For more information go to www.freestyleinsulinx.com.au |
About the Seed Award
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In 2010, to recognise the critical role Melinda Seed played in the development of the Type 1 Diabetes Network over many years, we instigated The Seed Award, which recognises people who have shown the strong values and commitment that Melinda has contributed to the type 1 community for many years. Open to both individuals and groups, nominations for the Seed Award are judged by the T1DN committee according to how the nominees:- provided support, information and/or a voice for the type 1 community;
- demonstrated initiative and intelligence in their endeavours; and
- have been committed to the principle that people living with type 1 diabetes can and should have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
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