Intro to #diabeteschat

by Norman

on September 15, 2022

Hi 👋

My name is Tom and I have Type 1 diabetes. I’m a SEN teacher and live in Derbyshire (England) with my wife and son Harry.

For me, for many years I lacked confidence and felt embarrassed and tried to hide away from my diabetes – not telling many people…until only much recently; I’ve felt much more confident & I’m starting to embrace my diabetes more…

…and that’s why I set up –

#diabeteschat – @diabetes_chat

In February 2022 I started a #diabeteschat Twitter space to connect with people, talk and share real lived experiences. I was surprised and took back by how quickly the community grew and now we’re into our 8th month of running the weekly chat spaces.

Connecting with fellow diabuddies:

At the turn of the year I began to follow fellow diabetics on Twitter & joined different support groups on Facebook and I felt, ever so closer, to the diabetes community than ever before.

Then one evening I was sat at home thinking how could I connect with more people to share ideas, experiences, & tips…and just have the opportunity to speak and listen to others. I thought I would utilise the Twitter Space feature and set up a diabetes chat space and see if any one would jump on and have a chat.

What is diabeteschat:

The idea behind the community space is to connect with people with diabetes from all over the world to share ideas, experiences, tips and is about raising awareness of diabetes and to unite people together in a unique peer support group. What I love about doing the space is it brings people together and gives them the opportunity to listen in or come and say hello and ask a question or share their experiences. It’s great to hear all the perspectives, from those newly diagnosed to those who have had it for a long time… all so relatable and it’s inspiring just listening to how people go through every day experiences with diabetes. We have parents of children with diabetes join us regularly and ask questions or connect with other parents and the community. We have also had different medical professionals including DSNs, consultants, dieticians…listening and joining in.

#diabeteschat Mission statement & Features:

We host weekly twitter spaces to connect with people from around the world with diabetes. We host weekly guest speakers chats and our community connects with Health Care Professionals, diabetes advocates and sports athletes. We also do fun and informative features including; diabetes news of the week, diabetes fun fact and poll of the week. We also host a unique open forum chat where people can talk, tweet and connect with diabuddies from all over the world.

#dedoc at EASD:

#diabeteschat have been invited to speak at the #dedoc symposium alongside amazing community advocates; and I’m going to be talking about the #diabeteschat community.

This blog has been set up to highlight the daily content of the #EASD2022 diabetes conference.