Inspire Award Winner 2016

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the honour of being nominated for a Diabetes UK Inspire Award. This weekend the conference was held, along with the awards show, at the Copthorne Hotel in Cardiff. Unfortunately I found myself unable to attend the conference due to racing commitments, but when I received an email to say I was a winner, and that I could come and pick up my award this week, I was over the moon!

Receiving my trophy and certificate from Jason, Diabetes UK Cymru

So today I headed down to the Diabetes UK Cymru office, which is also in Cardiff, to meet the team and receive my beautifully engraved glass trophy and certificate. The category that I won the award in, is the Supporting Others and Services to Volunteering. It meant so much to me to have been nominated for the award, let alone to win, because put simply I love volunteering and to have this recognised win the award was wonderful.

I've told the story of how I started volunteering many times, but the reason I began is also how I started trying to support others with the condition. When I transitioned from insulin injections to a pump, it took an unusally long amount of time for one reason and another. Which meant that life had to be put on hold whilst I put my health and my diabetes first. This was an incredibly lonely and isolating time because, whilst I had friends and family around me, I didn't have anyone to talk to about what I was going through with my diabetes.

But this experience taught me alot about the importance of supporting other people with diabetes, you don't need to be a healthcare professional to listen to someone and spend time with them. To blog or to even start a support group, and those were the things that back then it was in my power to start doing. So that's what I did, and those things have grown into the blog that you're reading today, my new You-Tube channel and Blue Circle Diabetes Support group. So I'm very grateful to the people that nominated me for the award and to Diabetes UK Cymru for supporting me in my volunteering endeavours. My hopes for the future are that more awareness is raised about the psychological aspects of living with diabetes and the support available to people with the condition continues to grow.