Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Me. Schools do not open until the potatoes are harvested. Well, that's one way of keeping their carbs up! (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)

The group was pleased to welcome two new couples to our February meeting whose children had been diagnosed about a year ago. Though we are of course always sad that new people have cause to need our group, we’re always glad to see those who do. We hope we can help each other make life better for our children and our families.

As always, we had lots of experiences to share. There was a lively discussion about what makes a good appointment with a consultant (!) and we’re looking forward to passing some of our views on to one of the paediatric specialist nurses who will be joining our next meeting. We also benefited from comparing notes about our children’s eating habits, particularly with reference to school dinners. It’s always handy to be find out what happens at other schools, so that, if need be, you can  say to your child’s school “Well, this is how they do it so much better at x school…”

Louise handed out some useful posters and stickers thoughtfully provided by Vodafone for the new JustTextGiving service, and we’re also ordering some new cards so that we can subtly promote DiSC to other parents who might want to know about it. Hopefully by the next meeting we’ll be able to distribute a stack of cards to everyone who comes along, so that you can leave them in clinics, in surgeries, in pharmacists, or simply pass one across with an encouraging smile to anyone you see at clinic who you think might not know about us. Watch this space…. and put the date of the next meeting in your diary, March 15th, so that you can come and meet our new psychologist, Claire Semple, as well as our old friend Alison Gunn, PDSN.

And if you’re still worried about your child’s school dinner, click on this link…

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We were delighted to learn that the care team that looks after our children’s diabetes-related healthcare needs is to expand in the new year with the arrival of a new psychologist, Claire Semple.  We are looking forward to meeting her at a future DiSC meeting, when she will come to tell us about her plans and also to ask us how we’d like to use her service. She will be available to children with T1D and their families in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Bristol DiSC members lobbied long and hard to gain access to child psychology services and we can’t wait to welcome her!

Sorry, now sold out! (Well, it is February now!) But this project raised an amazing £5,000 for JDRF – congratulations to all involved!

We saw Morph at the At-Bristol Science Museum!

A small group of us had a great afternoon at the @Bristol Science Museum on Saturday where our diabetes support group had arranged to meet for a family outing.  Parents came from The Museum kindly admitted one parent free of charge for every child with diabetes – though of course non-diabetic siblings were very welcome too!  We were allowed free use of a private room so that we could have lunch and an afternoon snack together, plus privacy for necessary blood testing and bolusing.

Particularly popular were the Planetarium, the Animate! exhibit sponsored by Bristol’s own Aardman Animations and the TV studio where we took full advantage of the special effects to make our own broadcasts.  We were slightly perplexed with the giant doll whose insides we were able to take out – he appeared to have no pancreas!  But in spite of that omission, a good time was had by all.

A big thank you to Membership Secretary Louise for organising it.

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We were delighted that Bristol DiSC was chosen by the Henleaze branch of Waitrose to be one of its three nominated charities of the month.

As regular Waitrose shoppers will know, whenever you buy something in Waitrose you’re entitled to pick up a small green charity disc from the checkout.  Just beyond the checkout are three clear glass boxes, each of which is dedicated to a local charity. You use the disc to vote for which charity you prefer.  A brief description of each charity is posted above so that customers may make an informed decision before casting their vote.  At the end of the month, Waitrose donates part of its profit share to each of the three charities, in the proportion designated by the number of votes each has received.

It’s a simple scheme but it’s always fascinating to watch, as the month progresses, to see which of the three charities has captured most shoppers’ hearts! And of course this time we at DiSC cared particularly passionately!

A big thank you to all who shopped there and voted for us.  You ‘ve helped earn Bristol DiSC a fabulous donation of £324, which will all be used to help us support local children with Type 1 diabetes and their families.  As we don’t have any regular grants or income from any other source, this sum will make a real difference to us.

And well done to Linda for getting us nominated in the first place!