With the Swansea Half Marathon event looming tomorrow morning, I was excited to be invited to attend and speak at the Diabetes UK/ Diabetes Research Unit- Diabetes and Exercise conference. The purpose of the conference, which has been running for 3 years now, is to bring people with all types of diabetes together, in addition to healthcare professionals to share knowledge and experiences in order to break down the barriers hindering participation in sport.
The day began at Swansea University Bay Campus with an opening address from Diabetes UK Director Dai Williams, who will also be running the half marathon tomorrow and Professor Richard Bracken from the Diabetes Research Unit. This was followed by two patient stories, Hugo who rowed the Atlantic with T1D and John who became an actor, with T2D, a talk from Carwyn at Sport Wales on different initiatives promoted by the organisation to help encourage engagement in physical activity.
Then it was time for me to speak about my experiences as a volunteer diabetes ambassador for Parkrun and after so much enthusiasm last year, provide information on how people with diabetes can got involved through participation and volunteering. My talk was followed by a fantastic double presentation by dietitians Elaine and Gill who spoke about the evidence base behind optimal nutrition for diabetes and performance and a case study of a young person with T1D who rode over 100 miles in a day for a cycling challenge.
After breaking for lunch, we had the opportunity to divide into groups based on presentation interests, so I chose to attend the talks on the physiology and new research of T1D and physical activity, which was fascinating. We heard from Dr Othmar Moser and Olivia McCarthy who presented brand new research on the effectiveness of iCGM/CGM during exercise and identified future research into variability of behaviour between different insulins in sport. Then before we knew it the day drew to a close, but not before some of tomorrow's runners had an opportunity to meet ahead of the big race, which will be a truly momentous occasion when 80+ people with T1D go for the world record for most people to complete a half marathon.
The day began at Swansea University Bay Campus with an opening address from Diabetes UK Director Dai Williams, who will also be running the half marathon tomorrow and Professor Richard Bracken from the Diabetes Research Unit. This was followed by two patient stories, Hugo who rowed the Atlantic with T1D and John who became an actor, with T2D, a talk from Carwyn at Sport Wales on different initiatives promoted by the organisation to help encourage engagement in physical activity.
Then it was time for me to speak about my experiences as a volunteer diabetes ambassador for Parkrun and after so much enthusiasm last year, provide information on how people with diabetes can got involved through participation and volunteering. My talk was followed by a fantastic double presentation by dietitians Elaine and Gill who spoke about the evidence base behind optimal nutrition for diabetes and performance and a case study of a young person with T1D who rode over 100 miles in a day for a cycling challenge.
After breaking for lunch, we had the opportunity to divide into groups based on presentation interests, so I chose to attend the talks on the physiology and new research of T1D and physical activity, which was fascinating. We heard from Dr Othmar Moser and Olivia McCarthy who presented brand new research on the effectiveness of iCGM/CGM during exercise and identified future research into variability of behaviour between different insulins in sport. Then before we knew it the day drew to a close, but not before some of tomorrow's runners had an opportunity to meet ahead of the big race, which will be a truly momentous occasion when 80+ people with T1D go for the world record for most people to complete a half marathon.
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