Type 1 Uncut Filming Take 3... Action!

Recently I've been telling you about a series of videos that I've been involved in making for the charity Diabetes UK. Available to view on YouTube, the videos are made by young people- for young people all about the different sides of the diabetes coin. They cover topics on everything from what it's like to live with the condition, to the effect it might have on our nearest and dearest. For the last 9 months we've been working with media company Nonsense to create, film and edit these videos for you, the first of which were released online during diabetes week. Yesterday we were adding a couple more videos to the series, and I was tasked with creating a video with my group on my favourite topic of extreme exercise and diabetes!

The day started at the Nonsense headquarters in Bethnal Green in London, as soon as we entered the building our creative juices began flowing, because the once derelict church, had been transformed into the most quirky looking location- great for a film set. Getting together to plan our day in their central meeting area that resembled a meeting room out of Downton, it was great to see both old and new faces in the group. A wealth of talented people with diabetes from around the UK, we had so many skills to draw from, from medical students to musicians and from social media specialists to publishers. We were also joined by Diabetes UK head office managers Collette (head of operations) and Deidre (head of service provision), whose support along with event creator and organiser Chris Headland, is invaluable to the project for people with Type 1 diabetes. The other groups attending the event were going to be making what are sure to be exciting videos on sex and diabetes, hypos and diabetes and also on diabetes research. Like the videos we'd done previously, they would be filmed using everyday devices such as tablets and phones.

We soon broke off into our subject groups to start planning for the filming we were about to do. Within our filming group for extreme exercise we had someone that had been newly diagnosed with diabetes, so we all decided that this would be a great lens through which to deliver the video. Dividing the aspects of exercise up into manageable chunks so that someone new to the condition could work out how to get the best out of exercising. These areas included:-

- How to prepare your diabetes for exercise
- Keeping safe during the sporting activity
 (filming the actual extreme exercise)
- What to do afterward exercise to ensure stable blood sugars

 The other sporty people in my group were Lindsay who's a marathon runner and Charlotte who's a weight lifter, then there was myself a sprinter- so we did our best to utilise the surrounding suburban area to show a little of the sports we do.

It was a really productive day and a really enjoyable one too, we were even joined by the lovely Jen Grieves from Radio 1. It was great to meet her and excellent to have her support on the project. By the late afternoon there was just one more video for the volunteers to create and that was a fundraising one. We've been really lucky that up until now a great organisation called Garfield Western Foundation has funded our project, but I believe this is soon to come to an end. The videos have been viewed over 10,000 times since Diabetes Week in June, with hundreds of subscribers. So the feedback is that the Type 1 Uncut videos are making a difference to the lives of young people living with Type 1 diabetes and hopefully the work will be able to continue. I'm a great advocate of volunteering anyway as there is so much to gain from giving your time to help support others, and this was a great opportunity to document on film, that living with diabetes is okay, and it's made better by the friendship and support of other people with the condition too.