On Saturday 14th July 2012 it was the Diabetes UK Big Event at the University of Warwick just outside Coventry. Being involved with the new UK Young Leaders for Diabetes UK I travelled up from my area in South East London on Friday 13th July to stay over on campus at the university, and be fresh and ready come the next morning…

I arrived in Coventry early at 1pm, which I wasn’t expecting, and so after a brief walk about the City Centre I decided to hop on the University bus and check in. I have to say no offence to any person reading from Coventry, but the Cathedral appeared a decent view… it suddenly crashed downhill after that. Not a place I’ll rush back to visit too soon…

I checked into my room and found that I was the first to arrive of all the Young Leaders, there is twenty of us and I am the type you’d expect to be late to my own funeral – I didn’t know what to do with myself! Fortunately Hannah arrived around twenty minutes later and we went to get a coffee, where we bumped into a few of the Diabetes UK employees. Laura the Ninja-betic, Martyn and Kevin soon showed up on site and we soon decided it would be good to check out the campus amusements (the pub…). One of the best parts of what I enjoyed about being involved with the Young Leaders group is that we are all from different areas around the UK, for example the four mentioned so far are from Manchester, Portsmouth, Shropshire and Dunfermline, yet, we all have that distinctive similarity in being diabetic (and we’re all type 1 coinsidently), and in being young adults that have that similarity I found that gave us all an extra bit of togetherness. Well I certainly was bonding…

Zoe Scott also was one of the first on the scene and it was good to finally meet her, she is involved with Hedgie Pricks which supplies an intersting psychological service for people with diabetes. And soon there were a whole bunch of us from all kinds of places, even flying over from Northern Ireland in Mairead’s and Caroline’s cases. Thomas Jones – guess where he is from! Unfortunately the dia-welshman was on crutches and not able to sing! I’ve always had my own way… well I was going to continue that sentence, but that is enough said, I’ve always had my own way! This way perhaps is pretty forward, especially where pretty blonde Irish barmaids called Rosie are concerned, but it sure was good to socialise the way we did that night and I felt for many of us it kind of bought the group together more. Maybe not for Tim though, as I bought him a shot of vodka with chili and tabasco sauce in it without explaining the ingredients…

The productive side of this event was on the Saturday, after all our socialising time had concluded. The Big Event was sure well decorated by all from Diabetes UK involved, with balloons, banners, and a good layout for speakers and businesses and all kinds of diabetes info taking place. We were not inside the main area for this event through most of the day, as there was our own set agenda to take place in making progress with our own plans as this new Young Leader committee with Alex and Matt the main people in charge of this from D.UK. After discussing some important parts of our plans we also had the pleasure of hearing a few senior, high-up Diabetes UK members talk to us, such as Barbara Young the Chief Exc. I also spoke to Barbara earlier in the morning regarding my upcoming event, and it was interesting to hear direct from her the plans Diabetes UK are currently negotiating, and I look forward to further discussions with her in the future about my challenge. Barbara comes across to me as the kind that goes out and gets the job done, down to earth but knowing what is needed, I could relate to this and although my personal personality is maybe more wild side, I like that attitude she has and have grown to adopt this over the years myself. I call these people do-ers, Ray Ramnath from GBR Nutrition is a do-er, he speaks to people and approaches good contacts without fear, same for Paul Farrelly. I’ve learned from these people, and yes, I did actually say to Barbara “you are a do-er”…

I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to everybody as I was whisked off by a film team late in the day for an interview, and we had to have 30 takes as it was a good shot looking over the hall for the event, but unfortunately right next to the toilets. I also sniffed about and approached a few interesting and diabetes-related businesses that were packing up regarding sponsorship for my challenge soon to be announced! As mentioned, I’ve learned from Ray Ramnath and Paul Farrelly… watch this space!

(Me processing my thoughts the morning after…)