Visit by All Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes is a group of Members of Parliament and Peers with a special interest in the issue of diabetes. In May Professor Solomon Tesfaye gave a presentation to the Group about diabetes research and they are now due to visit Sheffield with Dr Clare Hambling, the NHS England Lead for Diabetes and Obesity.
The visit is on
Wednesday 20th August 2025, 11:30 - 15:30 at the Medical Education Centre, Northern General Hospital
The special guests will be welcomed by Prof Tesfaye and then there will be a series of short presentations with speakers, including health care professionals covering various aspects of diabetes care.
Sheffield Diabetes Uk Group has been invited to have a stand on the day to showcase our work. Anyone with an interest in diabetes is welcome to attend .
Do you have Type 2 Diabetes and experience anxiety or depression?
BUMPS AND BLOOD SUGARS
At our May 2025 Group meeting we had a presentation all about pregnancy and diabetes.
Sheffield Diabetes UK Group has been selected to be a Healthwatch Hero
We’re delighted that Sheffield Diabetes UK Group has been selected as a Healthwatch Hero.
HealthWatch Sheffield says:
This award recognises individuals and organisations who go above and beyond to support people in Sheffield to have their voices heard and influence the health and social care services that affect their lives. Your work has made a real difference, and we want to celebrate that with you.
We collected the award, presented by the Lord Mayor at the Community Voices Brunch event on 2 July
GlucoVox: Using Your Voice to Help Monitor Diabetes Non-Invasively
People with diabetes, especially older adults, face increased risks of both low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia) and cognitive decline. Recent studies suggest that changes in blood glucose can subtly affect how we speak – things like pitch, tone, and fluency.
The research team from the University of Sheffield is working on a project called GlucoVox, which explores the link between voice patterns and blood glucose levels and aims to develop a new, non-invasive way to help monitor blood sugar levels.
With support from Sheffield's Diabetes UK Group and Professor Simon Heller, we would like to hear from people with a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) who are interested in being part of a pilot project in Sheffield. Your participation will help us understand how voice analysis can support diabetes management.
What's involved?
If selected, you'll be asked to record your voice 3 times a day using a smartphone and track your glucose levels over a set period. We'll provide all the necessary instructions and support.
Ready to express your interest?
Please fill out this short form. It will help us understand your eligibility and get in touch.
https://forms.gle/XBhFhJTj6tKRnq2j6
Any questions please contact the project lead Dr Ning Ma at n.ma@sheffield.ac.uk
Healthy Living for people with Type 2 Diabetes
There is now a free, online NHS Programme that supports people to live well with type 2 diabetes.
The programme is user-led and offers an alternative means of accessing support to the more traditional, group-based structured education programmes.
To register for the programme, follow this link:
Healthy Living
On 16 November 2024 Diabetes UK Sheffield Group held a very successful day event at Sheffield Town Hall. "Diabetes and Me" saw large numbers of people come together to find out more about living with diabetes.
Studying ticks to help treat Diabetes
Breathe Easy Sheffield is a unique new non-profit events series! If you enjoy socialising, but feel cautious since the pandemic about crowded and indoor spaces - this is for you.
Many people are still worried about the risks of attending in-person events, especially people who are clinically vulnerable to covid-19 and other infectious diseases.
Breathe Easy Sheffield is a new eclectic series of social and cultural events, designed with enhanced safety measures in place to reduce transmission risk.
Booking is now open for autumn/winter events, including cinema, life drawing, informal socials and festive crafting.
Want to find out more? Join the mailing list
bit.ly/breathe-easy-signup or
mailto:breathe.easy.sheff@gmail.com
Diabetes and Ageing
The Diabetes UK Sheffield Group held a very well attended and important meeting on Thursday 19th September 2024 at Radisson Blu Hotel. The topic was “Ageing and Diabetes Matters – National Recommendations for Better Care”.
The speakers were Professor Solomon Tesfaye (DUKS President), Professor Alan Sinclair (International Expert MD FRCP), Dr Ahmed Abdelhafiz, Local Consultant in Elderly Medicine. Also in attendance was Irene Fufeyin from Diabetes UK Executive Team.
Before the main talk Irene presented the H G Wells medal to our lovely friend Mavis Thompson’s family. Mavis died this year in her 80th year of diabetes.
Professor Sinclair opened his talk outlining that 33% of OAPs over 65 years develop type 2 diabetes. This is a huge problem for the health care professionals to manage particularly when other health conditions such as frailty, cognitive issues and lack of mobility may affect a patient. Type 1 diabetes is also prevalent in OAPS over 65 and can be complex to manage.
Alan outlined that many papers and studies have been carried out over the last few years to outline the issues of care management of the elderly with diabetes. The reports are aimed at developing a better understanding of care management and drawing up best practice guidelines.
Frailty can now be assessed using guideline to assess patient’s abilities and medical situation. GP ‘s use this system regularly. Frailty can be reversed with the correct inputs and quality of life can be increased.
Diabetes in old age can cause physical health problems. About 40 % of older people with diabetes have at least 3 comorbid conditions. Diabetes in old age increases the risk of cognitive dysfunction and depression.
A high HbA1c instability equates to a high mortality rate. A stable HbA1c level has a reduced mortality rate.
Technology is increasingly helping to assist with the management the elderly people with diabetes.
Dr Ahmed Abdelhafiz
spoke about the problems of managing elderly people with diabetes, physical dysfunction and comorbidities. He spoke about how frailty can be assessed by a combination of unintentional weight loss, weakness (reduced hand grip), exhaustion (self reported) and slowness (reduced walking speed). He showed how managing hypoglycemia can be beneficial to elderly patients. Some medications can be reduced. Ahmed used several slides to high light different factors affecting the care of elderly patients. He also covered the benefits of using new therapies (SGLT-2is and GLP-1RAs).
An interesting Q and A session followed the presentations. Topics covered can be summarized as ageing and going into care - how are patients supported?, upskilling of care home staff and training requirements, professional health care support to elderly patients, ICB has a “Quality in Care Homes” support team. Diabetes is a disease of the muscle and resistance training is important for elderly people.
Both presentations can be viewed in full by clicking these links:
When a social prescription for type 2 diabetes becomes medicine for the community
by
Jules Hotz
On a sunny Tuesday last September at Endcliffe Park, I met the “Chain Gang” -- a group of cycling enthusiasts turned tea-time-friends. Like every gang, each member has a role to play in the group. Martin is the mechanic and the flapjack maker. Linsay is the storytelling comedian. Chris is the warm, self-deprecating glue. And Frank is the group founder and leader (although, I’m sure he’d tell you that everyone in The Chain Gang is a leader).
As I sit with them and hear tall tales of their weekend cycles and holiday parties, I imagine they’ve been friends for years. But the group is new, and has an unusual origin story, which began when Frank was given an unusual prescription for his type 2 diabetes: a
social prescription.
Earlier, Frank had been given all kinds of medicine and health advice for his type 2 diabetes. He was told, with a wagging finger, to exercise more. He was told to eat cornflakes (which, he says, he later learned, is one of the worst things you can do as a diabetic). He was given insulin, and was told he’d be on it for the rest of his life.
But when Frank moved to a new spot in Sheffield and found a new doctor, Ollie Hart, he found a new chance at healing through a new kind of prescription. Instead of leading with Frank’s symptoms (“what was the matter with him?”), Ollie got to understand Frank’s interests (“what mattered to him?”). And when he learned Frank enjoyed cycling as a kid but hadn’t been on a bike since, Ollie prescribed him a spot in a Cycling Confidence course through the local group, Pedal Ready -- six weeks of guided instruction helping riders relearn the the basics of biking, like “looking behind, turn signaling, stopping with control, cycling in a group, cycling through a roundabout,” says group instructor, Pam Walton. “It’s about encouraging people [to ease into cycling] and not forcing them to do things before they’re ready.”
My new book,
The Connection Cure, which digs into the science, the stories, and the spread of social prescriptions like these around the world, tells the full story of Frank’s before-and-after healing journey. But to give you a little spoiler alert, let’s just say: Frank got better -- both physically, and psychologically. “It wasn’t as much about controlling his diabetes as much as it was about getting him out and doing something,” says his doctor, Ollie.
And yet, Frank
did find relief from his type 2 diabetes symptoms. He lost weight, he came off his insulin, and feels “better than he’s felt in years,” he says. But perhaps more importantly, Frank met lifelong friends through Pedal Ready. And determined to keep cycling with them beyond the Pedal Ready course, he created The Chain Gang -- an informal, inclusive group meeting for weekly cycles (on Tuesdays at 10am), where anyone can suggest a ride, and nobody gets left behind.
While sipping tea and nibbling flapjacks with the Chain Gang, I learn Chris, Linsay, and Martin have similar before-and-after stories. And I realize it’s not just the cycling that’s medicinal (although, of course, that helps -- since cycling is associated with
lower disease riskand
increased life expectancy). I learn, especially on this
Loneliness Awareness Week, that the fellow cyclists’ social company is medicinal, too.
Hero of Health
We recently had a presentation about Hero of Health, with brilliant speakers telling us how to live a healthier life with Type 2 diabetes and how the condition can be reversed. If you missed it or would like to see it again, click below:
Artificial Pancreas Technology to be offered to diabetes patients
Tens of thousands of people with type 1 diabetes in England are to be offered a new technology, dubbed an artificial pancreas’
A glucose sensor under the skin automatically calculates how much insulin is delivered via a pump. Later this month, the NHS will start contacting adults and children who could benefit from this.
There is a five year plan to roll out the technology. Nice recommends its use for those with type 1 who are in certain categories, including children and under-18s, pregnant women, and those with a HbA1c reading (a way of recording long-term blood sugar levels) of 58 mmol/mol, or 7.5%, or higher. To see more, visit BBC News website:
Diabetes patients to be offered artificial-pancreas technology - BBC News
Looking back over 2023, and Looking forward to 2024
The Diabetes UK Sheffield Group AGM was held on Thursday 25 January 2024. This was a hybrid format meeting with 11 attendees at Houlden Hall and 8 on line via the zoom platform. One apology for absence was noted.
Our Chairperson Shirley opened the meeting and welcomed everyone in attendance and outlined the format of the evening.
The minutes of the last AGM meeting 2023 were approved with no matters arising.
The next item - Chairs report, Shirley highlighted the very successful year for the group. Briefly comprising of monthly meetings with speakers on all aspects of diabetes, two well received one day events, several attendances at gala’s and community wellbeing events.
For a full copy of the Chairs report click here.
David (treasurer) outlined the financial position of the group, detailing income from raffles, donations, collections and events against expenditure for admin, room hire and events.
For a full copy of treasures report click here.
The secretary’s given by Linsay outlined the success of group activities, briefly comprising of 14 group meetings, 12 committee meetings, two one day events, lots of community events, Carers days, conference attendance and working with other bodies. The popular group News Brief has 531 subscribers with a steady monthly increase.
The final agenda item was the election of officers and roles. (Se
About Us page for details)
The group has enjoyed a very successful year and look forward to repeating this success in 2024.
Have you considered helping out with committee meetings, monthly meetings and or day events? We are a friendly volunteer group always in need of additional help and new ideas. If you have skills in social media, publishing, editorial or general help at meetings and events, we would like to hear from you. You can contact the group email on
diabetesuk.sheffield@gmail.com
