North Down & Ards Voluntary Support Group
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Diabetes UK
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Meetings & Events
Meetings & Events are shown in Calendar order.
Details of what was covered at previous events/meetings in the year can be found at the bottom of this page.
If you have any queries please use the 'Contact Us' link and someone will get back to you.
February Fundraiser - Friday the 17th of February 2012
The fundraiser this year will be a Pub Quiz in the Ivy Bar in Newtownards followed by a bit of fun with the karaoke machine.
Tickets will be £5 a head and the max in a team is 6.
We hope you can get your thinking caps on and give us your support!
There will also be a raffle on the evening with a host of prizes, star prize so far - a donation from Translink of 2 Freedom of NI tickets - entitles the user to one day's travel across the rail and bus network in Northern Ireland.
We've also got a Nolan Alarm Clock from the Stephen Nolan show, thanks to Vinny Hurrell, Stephen's producer, for sorting that one out.
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Monday the 16th of April 2012 - Diabetic Voices
Please note that this meeting is on a different Monday night to our normal events due to Easter Monday.
The topic is Diabetic Voices, our speaker will be Brendan Heaney, Policy & Public Affairs Manager from Diabetes UK's NI office.
He will give a talk on the Diabetes UK initiative - Diabetic Voices, a campaign to make sure people affected by diabetes have a say in diabetes services and care.
Brendan will also update the Group on his discussions with DVLA concerning the current issues surrounding diabetes and driving licenses.
Saturday the 12th of May - Walk in the Park fundraiser
Our main fundraiser of the year.
Diabetes UK has a nationwide series of 'Walks in the Park', our walk is along the Bangor Coastal Path starting from a point just beyond Pickie Pool, usually in June, but this year its in May.
Details of how to get sposership forms etc. will be posted closer to the date, but don't worry, you don't have to be sponsered to take part, anyone can turn up in the day and help to raise awareness of diabetes in the North Down & Ards area.
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Monday the 14th of May - Know Your Numbers
Our final event of the 2011-2012 season.
A talk from a consultant on just what all those numbers you see in your blood test results actually mean and why the targets are important.
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2012-2013 Season
We are already under way with the planning for next year, never too early to make a start!
We have secured Alex Easton, MLA for North Down as our speaker for our first evening in September, Monday the 10th, details of venue and time will be put up later.
As well as Alex we hope to have someone give a talk on research, what services you can get from your pharmacist, benefit advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau and Psychological Support Services - what is available, if there is a topic you want discussed do please use the Contact Us link and let us know and we will see what we can do.
Deatils of Meetings and Events in 2011-2012 that have already taken place -
Monday 12th of September - We had a talk with Phyl Reynolds from the South Eastern Trust and the topic was 'Structured Diabetes Eductaion - What can it do for me'. We learned about the methods the Trust uses and why this is an important tool in improving diabetes care.
Monday 10th of October - We had a talk with Florence Findlay White from Diabetes UK (NI) and the topic was 'Supporting Children with Diabetes'. We learned about what Diabetes UK has been doing in order to support children with diabetes; the holidays camps for children and the family weekends and also about Diabetes UK (NI)'s very successful campaign to improve the life of children in schools.
Monday 14th of November - Unfortunately our planned speaker couldn't make it, but on the evening we had a lively and active discussion on Diabetes UK's theme for World Diabetes Day, which just happened to be Monday the 14th!
Our discussion focused on the Diabetes UK's 14 point checklist of What Care you Should Receive
The discussion proved a positive point in that the majority regularly received all the care they should, but it was agreed that some areas needed improved such as -
(i) Education courses such as DAFNE, BERITE and DESMOND should be more readily availiable;
(ii) Diabetic in-patients should be treated with greater respect and understanding whilst in hospital - we have the condition 24/7 therefore we know best how to manage ourselves;
Thursday 15th of December - Our Group Christmas dinner, sixteen of us sat down and had a lovely meal in Carlittos in Newtownards, lots of chat and laughs, spoiled a little by a misunderstanding over some bread rolls, but we won't go into that!
Monday 9th of January - Our speaker on the night was Barbara Anne fom the South Eastern Trust and the topic was Diabetic Footcare.
Barbara Anne gave a brief chat on the basics and took questions from the floor ranging from in-grown toe-nails to flight socks